JSW Steel’s crude steel production up 6% at 14.25 lakh tonnes in October

Domestic steel giant JSW Steel's crude steel production stood at 14.25 lakh tonnes on a standalone basis in October. The average capacity utilisation for the month was at 95 per cent.

Crude steel production grew 6 per cent on a month-on-month basis, with September production at 13.43 lakh tonnes. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, production for October 2021 grew 6 per cent.

JSW Steel said that crude steel or pig iron production from the phase 2 expansion project during October 2021 was considered as trial production and it's not part of the production numbers for October 2021.

Meanwhile, the company is planning to levy a surcharge on the sale of its steel products to its long-term OEM (original equipment manufacturer) customers, a top company official told PTI.

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When that happens, JSW Steel will be the first company to introduce the concept of surcharge in the domestic steel market.

There is huge pressure on the cost of production. Cost of per tonne steel production went up by 19 per cent or Rs 6,600 per tonne quarter-on-quarter in July-September 2021, Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director and Group CFO, JSW Steel, told the news agency.

The rate of coking coal -- a key steelmaking raw material for which players remain dependent on imports -- has also gone up from $120 per tonne to $400 a tonne in just four weeks, he said.

Last month, the company posted an over four-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 7,179 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, mainly driven by higher income. It had reported Rs 1,595 crore of net profit in the July-September quarter of the previous fiscal. Its total income in the quarter under review soared to Rs 33,449 crore from Rs 19,416 crore in the year-ago period.

Shares of JSW Steel were trading at Rs 677.6, down by Rs 8.25 or 1.20 per cent, on the NSE.

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