Tata Steel sales were up marginally by three per cent in the December quarter at 21.29 lakh tonnes against 20.66 lakh tonnes in the same period last year. Saleable steel production was at 22.21 lakh tonnes, up three per cent, against 21.50 lakh tonnes in the December quarter last year.

The company achieved the highest-ever pellet production of 1.03 million tonnes in the quarter.

Similarly, output peaked for various other steel products such as wire rods and flat products. It achieved the best-ever sales to the automotive segment of 0.34 million tonnes (the previous best being 0.28 million tonnes in the third quarter of last fiscal).

Earlier, Tata Steel said its profits may come under pressure in the December quarter due to acute shortage of iron ore leading to lower production. It was not able to pass on the increase in raw material cost to end-users due to lower demand.

Mining operations in Noamundi Iron Ore mine in Jharkhand was suspended in December and for mines in Odisha, including Joda Iron Ore mine, was suspended for more than a month, the company had said.

The development resulted in the company curtailing production by suspending operations at one of its blast furnaces and was forced to operate below its capacity for over a month during the quarter. Besides procuring iron ore from domestic markets, the company had to rely on imports despite severe logistic challenges at the port and availability of railway capacity.

“All these factors impacted the stability of operations, cost structure and the profitability of the company during the quarter. The uncertain iron ore mining situation has affected the operations of the company,” said the company.

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