JSW Steel’s April crude steel production at 6.37 lacs tons

O P Jindal Group’s JSW Steel Ltd. has reported 11 per cent drop in the production of crude steel at 6.37 lacs tons for the month of April 2013, as against 7.15 lacs tons of crude steel produced in the same month last year. While the production of rolled products (flat) dropped by 13 per cent to 4.55 lacs tons in April 2013, the production of rolled products (long) declined by 17 per cent to 1.28 lacs tons in the month under review, JSW Steel said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. "The availability of quality iron ore in sufficient quantities remained a challenge, impacting the production and capacity utilization. One of the blast furnaces at Vijayanagar works was under annual shutdown for 22 days and resumed operations on April 26, 2013 and therefore the capacity utilization was lower at about 73 per cent. Similarly, one of the blast furnaces at Salem unit was also under shutdown during April 2013, which resumed production on May 6, 2013. Consequently, the production was lower during April 2013,” the company said.