The Steel Authority of India Limited (Sail) has been continuously increasing steel production in all its units to meet the increasing domestic demand, with its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) and Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) achieving record steel production in the first nine month of fiscal year 2020-21 despite challenges faced by the COVID-19 and lockdowns.
Blast Furnace No. 8 at BSP has recorded its highest hot metal production during April-December at 1.8mn mt, up by 4pc compared to prior year. The new Bar and Rod Mill’s production surged by 125pc to 237,920mt in the same period, the state-owned steelmaker announced via a series of tweets on social media platform Twitter.
BSP is focussing on maximising production for value added products from its Modex units’ Bar and Rod Mill, which rolled out SAIL SeQR grade of TMT bars and coils in various sizes.
Long rails provided to the Indian railways also saw its highest production of 532,091mt in April- Dec 2020, compared to 449,090mt in prior year period.
Steel Melting Shop-3, also a Modex unit, recorded highest cast steel production of 15,19,588mt, a surge of 118pc in April-Dec 2020 compared to prior year period. Universal Rail Mill has recorded best production of 454,000mt of prime rails in the same period.
On Jan 4, Sail hiked HRC and rebar prices by around Rs3,000/mt ($41/mt) for the month.
With latest price hike, Sail rebar will cost around Rs54,500-55,000/mt ($745-752/mt) ex-Mumbai and HRC prices around Rs54,000-54,500/mt ($738-745/mt) ex -Delhi.
In the International market, HRC prices are hovering at $750-760/mt cfr Vietnam or any European region. International steel prices are at par with domestic steel prices which indicates that scope for further price hike in the domestic market is less.
Industry leaders revealed that domestic steel demand is always good in the second of a fiscal year, particularly post-monsoon and festive season, driven by the construction sectors. Infra and construction projects are picking-up, which will support the demand and prices in both long and flat products even in Q4 FY21.
($1=Rs73.13)