JSW Steel, the flagship business of 12 billion dollar JSW Group, on Friday reported crude steel production of 2.96 million tonnes in the first quarter of the current financial year (April to June).
It had reported crude steel production of 4.24 million tonnes in the corresponding period of previous fiscal (Q1 FY20) and 3.97 million tonnes in the January to March quarter (Q4 FY20).
The company said its average capacity utilisation dropped to 76 per cent in June due to a fall in production at Vijayanagar works as certain employees tested COVID-19 positive.
The production of flat-rolled products totalled 2.05 million tonnes in Q1 FY21 as compared to 2.87 million tonnes in Q4 FY20 and 2.91 million tonnes in Q1 FY20.
The production of long rolled products was 0.45 million tonnes in Q1 FY21 as against 0.95 million tonnes in Q4 FY20 and 1.05 million tonnes in Q1 FY20.
JSW Steel said it has been declared as the preferred bidder for four iron ore mines in Odisha after the auctions held by the state government in February.
Mining operations have started at Nuagaon, Narayanposhi, Jajang and Ganua which have over one billion tonnes of reserves and were operating before their closure in March with environmental clearance to produce up to 29.3 million tonnes annually.
The earlier lessee produced an average of 21.65 million tonnes of iron ore from these mines in the last two years.
JSW Steel expects to meet a majority of its requirements of iron ore from these mines, reducing its dependency in sourcing the ore from merchant miners in Odisha.
( With inputs from ANI )