Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) registered a growth in production of Hot metal, Crude steel and Saleable steel by 2%, 4% and 14% in third quarter of FY'16 over the second quarter of the current year. SAIL also registered a 6% growth in sales volume over the previous quarter at 2.906 Million Tonnes. Simultaneously, the techno-economic parameters for the third quarter registered growth. There was a 4% growth in BF productivity and 6% growth in continuous casting in the current quarter compared to the previous quarter.
However, the Company incurred a net loss of Rs 1529 Crores for the third quarter of FY'16 as against a net profit of Rs 579 Crores over the third quarter of FY'15, primarily due to a 24% decline in Net Sales Realisations over the corresponding period last year. Sales were adversely impacted by huge surge in imports of low priced steel.
Global Steel prices have registered a steep fall over the last year falling from around $460 to $280 mainly due to slowing Chinese consumption which is leading to oversupply of cheap steel into the market. Imports into India are at an annualized rate of 12 million tonnes, which is 20% up over a very high base of FY' 15 when they had surged by 75% over the previous year. The domestic market continues to suffer from the rising imports particularly from China, Japan & Korea at prices which are much lower than the domestic cost of production, affecting the margins of steel producers operating in India.
Chairman, SAIL, Shri PK Singh said :the global scenario is very challenging and demand-supply imbalance resulting in price adjustments is hurting the domestic steel industry. We are focused on ramping up production from our new units and are adopting cost efficient strategies to improve our NSR. The recent favorable policies announced by government and its concerted efforts to enhance infrastructure spends in viable sectors will improve the domestic demand and provide some relief to the Indian steel industry."