JSW Steel on Tuesday reported a 15 per cent increase in crude steel production to 5.99 lakh tonnes (LT) in July this year from 5.20 LT in the corresponding year-ago period.
“The production in July, 2011, would have been higher had the suspension and transportation of mining of iron ore not been there,” the company said in a statement, adding that during the month, JSW had to cut production by 35 per cent due to the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on July 29 on iron ore mining in Karnataka’s Bellary district.
The statement further said that after last week’s order of the Supreme Court on the issue, which permitted only state-run NMDC to produce up to one million tonnes (MT) per month (or 12 MT annually) from Bellary, the company has restored production to 80 per cent of installed capacity.
In addition, the company completed installation of the fourth blast furnace and sinter plant at its Vijayanagar plant on July 20 as part of a 3.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) expansion project and the units are undergoing trial runs, the statement said. Post-commissioning, the Vijayanagar plant now has a total steel production capacity of 10 MTPA.
Scrips of the company were down by 2.49 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Rs 659 a piece at 1410 hours.