Steel Authority of India (Sail) aims to hit an export sales of 500,000mt in March quarter (Q4), up from 356,000mt in Q3. The company Q3 sales volume was a record 200,000 higher than the prior year quarter.
Sail exported around 170,000mt steel in January, which is close to its average monthly export, according to the company’s conference call. Sail’s prefers to export flat products due to better margins than longs.
For the full year 2020, Sail targets sales volume of 14.5mn mt, while for the next fiscal Sail expects sales volume at 16mn mt, an increase of 1.5mn mt. In the nine months (Apr-Dec), sales volume were 10.2mn mt from five integrated steel plants.
The additional 1.5-2mn mt steel sales is expected to be produced at the newly installed hot strip mill in Rourkela. Another three mills are yet to reach full capacity including Universal Section mill of IISCO unit, Medium Structural mill in Durgapur unit and Bar and Rod mill in Bhilai which is expected to ramp up production in the next quarter will also contribute to sales.