JSW’s steel production to take a hit in first quarter, says Seshagiri Rao

“Subsequent quarter needs to be wonderful, this quarter we’re making up the shortfalls within the home market with growing exports,” he mentioned.

JSW Steel’s metal manufacturing will take successful within the first quarter of the present monetary yr because of the affect of the ban on the utilization of oxygen for industrial functions. The metal consumption can also be anticipated to be decrease as localised lockdowns in a number of components of the nation are impacting demand.

Nevertheless, the corporate’s administration is hopeful that the affect might be restricted to at least one quarter and circumstances ought to enhance from the second quarter onwards.

Seshagiri Rao MVS, joint managing director, JSW Metal and group chief monetary officer informed FE that the corporate’s capability utilisation of 96% within the March quarter, has come all the way down to 91% in April.

“With the demand for medical oxygen remaining on the similar stage, (capability utilisation) in Might is also on related strains. So, sure, there might be some affect on metal manufacturing, which was 4-5% decrease in April and Might could be on related strains,” he mentioned.

The corporate is presently supplying as much as 1,200 tonnes per day of medical oxygen and provided a complete of 20,000 tonnes in April. Late final month, JSW Metal had mentioned that it could decrease the metal manufacturing and ramp up the availability of liquid oxygen, which noticed a pointy demand surge because the second wave of Covid-19 hit India. JSW Metal is supplying liquid oxygen from its three manufacturing services in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu to varied states.

There has additionally been an affect on the metal demand, as localised lockdowns and diversion of oxygen for medical functions has hit steel-consuming industries like steel fabrication and welding models. “In April, the metal consumption has come down to six.7 million tonne from 9.1 million tonnes in March, so there’s an affect of about 3 million tonnes of metal consumption,” Rao mentioned.

Nevertheless, with the variety of Covid-19 circumstances is coming down and vaccination being rolled out for almost all of the inhabitants, Rao mentioned he was hopeful of issues getting normalised. “Subsequent quarter needs to be wonderful, this quarter we’re making up the shortfalls within the home market with growing exports,” he mentioned.

Rao identified that regardless of the short-term hiccups, the yr 2021 will stay robust for metal consumption. World Metal Affiliation (WSA) this yr has estimated 102 million tonnes of incremental demand, which is 5.6% larger. Of this, 32 million tonnes might be contributed by China with a development of three%, and, the stability 70 million tonnes are coming from the remainder of the world, the place development is near 9%.

“WSA estimates that enormous infrastructure funding thrust by numerous governments in several international locations, which is commodity and steel-intensive, will result in good demand for metal. In India, WSA has mentioned the metal demand might be 106 million tonnes from the present stage of 94 million tonnes, so there might be 12 million tonnes of incremental demand in India in 2021,” he mentioned.

As for the metal costs, which have seen a pointy run, Rao mentioned that whereas the short-term volatility was created by speculative forces and would see some corrections, it was unlikely to be sharp. “Essentially the demand could be very robust both globally or in India, regardless of some affect of the second Covid wave,” Rao mentioned. The costs of the hot-rolled coil have been rising since August 2020. Since then, the steel has risen by 238% to $1515 per tonne, based on Bloomberg knowledge.

JSW Metal reported a pointy soar within the consolidated web revenue of practically 22 instances on a year-on-year foundation to Rs 4,191 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, clocking its highest quarterly revenue ever. The multi-fold soar comes on the again of a rise in metal demand, a pointy enhance in metal costs globally and a decrease base of final yr, which was impacted by the disruptions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The metal producer additionally reported its highest-ever quarterly income from operations, which elevated 51% y-o-y to Rs 26,934 crore.