Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL), one of India’s primary steel mills, produced 0.690 million tonnes (mn t) of crude steel in May ’21, SteelMint learned from a company press release.
The production volume was up by 40% year-on-year (y-o-y) compared to 0.494 mn t in the year-ago period and by a marginal 1% month-on-month (m-o-m) as against 0.681 mn t in Apr ’21 respectively.
Other major highlights:
- Sales decline 22% y-o-y-The company’s sales dropped by 22% y-o-y to 0.499 mn t in May ’21 as compared to 0.640 mn t in May ’20. However, on a monthly basis, the same was down by 11% against Apr ’21.
- Exports at 36% of total sales-JSPL continued to take measures to offset the impact of slowdown in domestic demand by exporting to lucrative global markets. Exports accounted for 36% of total sales in May ’21 at 0.179 mn t. For Apr ’21, the exports volume was 21% of total sales at 0.117 mn t.
Factors behind annual growth in production:
1.Lower barriers in trade-There was a region-based lockdown in May ’21 which partly hindered trade activities unlike in May ’20 when the country was in a nation-wide lockdown. This provided some demand momentum at least while transportation and logistics faced relatively lower barriers than the year-ago period. This, in turn, boosted the production volume during the month.
2.Availability of vaccine-With more and more people getting innoculated, a higher work force was available. This also helped in higher production against the previous year when there was an issue of labour owing to the migrant exodus.
Outlook-
As the Covid-19 situation continues to improve with increased drive for getting citizens vaccinated, the company is optimistic and has increased its production target. For FY ’22, the company is targeting crude steel production of 8-8.5 mn t.
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