JSW Steel estimates over 50pc of its total sales in the April-June quarter (Q1 FY 2021) to be seaborne trades. Exports are likely to decline once domestic demand recovers as expected in the second half of FY 2021. Like JSW, state-owned steelmaker, Sail is also looking at exports for better realisation.
JSW Steel
JSW Steel has found its markets in countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, followed by the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait. With exporting countries like Russia, Japan, South Korea operating at below capacity, seaborne trades have been hit. Russia and Japan’s steel production declined by 24pc and 23pc, respectively.
The company’s sales guidance for FY 2021 is 15mn mt, of which 20-30pc sales would be in export markets. The company is likely to produce 16mn mt of crude steel in the year. In 2020 (FY21), the company’s export volumes were at 3.12mn mt or 21pc of the total sales of 14.9mn mt.
Steel Authority of India Limited
Sail’s Bhilai plant exported over 40,000mt of cast billets of size 150*150mm to China since April from its newly modernised unit Steel melting shop-3 (SMS-3). The company will dispatch 20,000mt by June 15 for the same size of billet. Davis Index has also heard of an export order for 10,000mt of 105*105mm size cast billets to an Asian port. The deal price is expected (USD 375-380/mt) FoB India.
The Company also exported around 20,000mt of pig iron from the same plant in early May. The deal price is expected around Rs21,000/mt (USD 275-280/mt) ex-plant.