State-owned Steel Authority of India (Sail) exported 60,000mt of special grade steel slabs to China and 2,700mt of plates to Vietnam from its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). The company focused on seaborne trades, doubling its exports amid sluggish domestic demand due to COVID-19 related lockdown.
Special grade slabs were dispatched in two consignments to China. In the first consignment, 29,314mt of slabs were despatched between April 27 and May 6. The second batch of 30,592mt slabs was dispatched in 10 rakes between May 17 and June 7.
On May 25, the company had also received an export order of 2,700mt of ASTM A-26 grade plate mill plates with thickness of 12mm to 40mm and width of 2000mm. A total of 2,668mt of plates were despatched on June 5 to Vietnam through Paradip Port. Earlier, RSP had exported 485mt of 250BR plates to Bangladesh by road through Dankuni Stockyard of CMO, Sail.
The company has exported around 200,000mt of steel in May 2020 and targets to export around 350,000mt of steel in June 2020. Sail’s Bhilai plant in Chhattisgarh and Bokaro plant in Jharkhand sold slabs and HRCs, particularly to China.
Davis Index heard that steel prices for both, finished and semi-finished steel in the export market saw a rise in prices by around $20-25/mt in the last two months.
Sail’s crude steel production and sales were at 16.15mn mt and 14.5mn mt, respectively in FY2020 ending March 2020. The company’s exports increased by 54pc to 1.18mn mt from a year ago.