With aggressive buying interest from Chinese steel mills along with improved demand from Europe, Middle East, Indian mills have a good opportunity to explore the export market, said Mr. V. R. Sharma, Managing Director, Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) in a recent podcast with SteelMint.
On the global demand front, the demand for semi-finished steel like billets and pig iron is very strong in China. China is witnessing a shortfall of around 20 MnT of steel currently as the steel mills were closed during the period of lockdown on coronavirus outbreak. With the resumption of construction activities, Chinese mills are very actively importing semi-finished products.
Also, there is good demand from the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines, along with the European nations, and others like Australia and New Zealand are optimistic. Mills either closed or working on lower capacities in the regions have opened the opportunities for exports from India.
JSPL has recently concluded export deals of pig iron and billets. Paradeep and Gopalpur ports are open and are working Thus, exports are happening very smoothly during this period due to less traffic.
From the inventory point of view, JSPL is maintaining decent inventory levels for raw material and consumables inventory to cover up till mid April’20.
Current challenges –
— Banking transactions are not working smoothly as clearing-houses are not working, LCs are not getting retired owing to unavailability of interbank courier services.
–Domestic sales remained muted since all major steel markets were closed due to lockdown.
Outlook on the domestic market- India’s domestic demand is expected to increase after 15th April since the steel mills have to recover the loss faced during the lockdown.
To listen to podcast —
https://bit.ly/3ay2UVS
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