Tata Steel has reported an 8.24% increase in hot metal production at its Indian operations during the first quarter of the current financial year compared with the year-ago period. Crude steel production grew 8.25% in the latest quarter. In absolute terms, the steel major produced 1.824 million tonne (mt) of hot metal and 1.627 million tonne (mt) of crude steel in the first quarter.
The industry has witnessed rises in prices of raw materials like iron ore and coking coal, which could not be passed on to consumers amid a dip in demand and price of commodity on fears of oversupply from China.
HRC price in China is hovering in the range of $500-520 a tonne at present from around $600 a tonne in the beginning of the first quarter of the fiscal. Imports in April surged 47.9% to 6.6 lakh tonne. It has now reached a million tonne level, analysts said.
The company?s saleable steel production for the period ended June 30, 2010, stood at 1.591 million tonne, up 3.17% over the previous year?s figure.
However, first quarter sales stood at 1.396 million tonne (mt), almost the same when compared with the figure during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
The company attributed stagnation in sales primarily to ?weak market sentiments in commercial segment of flat products and excessive imports of hot rolled coil from China.”
However, sales of flat products, used mainly in the automobile sector, surged by 20% during the quarter. Sales of long products, used primarily in construction, witnessed an increase of 8%.,
Tata Steel has obtained the environmental clearance from the ministry of environment & forests for expansion, which would take its production capacity to 9.7 mt per annum.