JSW Steel has slightly increased the production levels from
its 10 million tonnes per annum Vijayanagar steel plant in Karnataka to
35-40 per cent of capacity after the company secured over 1.8 million tonnes of
iron ore through a recent auction of the raw material.
“The situation has improved slightly. We are currently producing at about
35-40 per cent of total capacity. One blast furnace and one Corex unit is
operational. If iron ore movement improves, our production will also
improve,” a senior company official said.
“There are big issues related to the delivery of the auctioned iron ore,
due to which we are not able to raise our production to a big extent,” the
official further said, adding that “delivery of the ore (to us) has been
less than one lakh tonnes despite JSW buying over 1.8 million tonnes in the
auctions”.
Citing logistics and delivery-related issues, the official refused to provide a
timeframe for the company to resume 100 per cent production levels from the
plant. Explaining the supply-related bottlenecks, he said that only nine
delivery points have been opened so far and all the companies that secured ore
supplies through the auction have to queue up there. Besides this, trucks
can only travel on roadways for 12 hours, between 6 am and 6 pm.
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