NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – India’s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSP) received a flurry of inquiries from European buyers looking for finished steel products, indicating a rise in exports in the current quarter to March, it said a senior company executive on Tuesday.
His comments come after JSP reported a nearly 68% drop in profit for the quarter ended December 31, hit by the government’s decision to apply an export tax in May last year on some intermediate products from steel and a drop in world demand.
“We saw an increase in the order book and a lot of inquiries,” Bimlendra Jha, managing director of Jindal Steel and Power, told Reuters in an interview.
Hit by the government’s decision to impose the export tax, India’s total exports of finished steel more than halved during the first nine months of the fiscal year that began in April 2022.
That sharp drop forced the government to lift the export tax in November, but steel companies have complained of a loss of share in traditional markets, including Europe.
“It’s not that there’s going to be a big move, but there is a breather,” Jha said, suggesting that his company expects exports to recover only gradually.
During the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the share of JSP exports in its total sales fell to 5% from 23% a year earlier.
Jha said rising costs of raw materials such as coking coal, especially since late December, have led to a rise in Indian steel prices.
But domestic demand was expected to be strong, particularly from the infrastructure and construction sectors, he said.
Allaying fears that cheaper steel imports will flood the Indian market, Jha said Russian cargoes do not pose a major challenge for Indian steelmakers.
“Just because there are few cargoes in danger here and there, I don’t think there is much reason to worry (about Russian steel imports),” Jha said.
Last week JSW Steel Ltd, the country’s top steelmaker, said there were concerns about possible Chinese and Russian steel spills into the country. (Reporting by Neha Arora; Editing by Mayank Bhardwaj and Mark Potter)
