Tata Steel Ltd. (TSL) on Thursday said its consolidated sales fell 22.8% to 5.28 million tonnes (MT) during the April-June quarter, from consolidated sales of 6.84 MT in the year-earlier period, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted operations.
Consolidated production during the quarter also fell 28.5% to 5.52 MT from 7.72 MT in the first quarter of 2019-20, TSL said in a regulatory filing. In the just concluded quarter, TSL’s India sales were at 2.92 MT, down from 3.96 MT in the year-earlier period, while the production volume fell to 2.99 MT from 4.5 MT.
Sales in Europe fell to 1.94 MT, from 2.26 MT a year earlier, while output fell to 2.14 MT from 2.65 MT.
TSL said overall in the first quarter of 2020-21, production and sales volumes were lower as the outbreak of COVID-19 and ensuing mobility restrictions impacted industrial activity and consumer sentiment across all geographies. “In India, capacity utilisation of our upstream facilities was adjusted to about 50% level in April, while our downstream units were closed,” TSL added.
The steel maker said that, with the phased opening of the economy, utilisation levels had been ramped up gradually to about 80% by end of June, adding that downstream facilities had also been restarted and were being ramped up progressively.
“With the continued opening of the economy... the proportion of domestic sales will increase from second quarter,” it said.
While urban markets were showing slow recovery, retail sales, especially in rural markets, were seeing an improvement, TSL added.
