December was a much better month for Tata Steel than November, managing director (India and Southeast Asia) T.V. Narendran said.
The domestic steel industry had gone through a difficult time during the last two years, when the sector faced many challenges from the international market, he said claiming that the situation had also affected the steel sector in China in 2015.
The Union government had intervened and supported the sector when a lot of steel was coming into the country, including the products dumped by China in 2015, he said.
Narendran said one million tonnes of steel came from China every month during the period. The government felt it would be unfair if no immediate steps were taken to protect the steel sector.
Appreciating the government initiatives, Narendran said the steel sector had played an important role in the development of the country and had invested Rs 3,00,000 crore during the last 10 years.
He said the steps taken by the government had helped the situation to improve from the beginning of 2016 when even the international market had started to pick up.
However, the increased cost of coal and iron-ore during the last 3-4 months had put pressure on the company. Demonetisation has also affected its performance.
The company had 5-8 per cent impact in the rural market owing to demonetisation in November, but the situation was much better in December.
He said demonetisation had impacted the company's performance in the cash-based rural market and assured that Tata Steel had taken initiative to address the problem.
"Our 1,000 dealers have been asked to install PoS/credit/debit card swipe machines to promote electronic payment in rural pockets," he said.
He said Tata Steel, which had invested and engaged with communities in good and bad times, would continue to invest to create jobs.
The focus of the company in 2017 is on improving productivity, he added.
Referring to the Kalinganagar plant in Odisha as a major greenfield project after the Jamshedpur facility, Narendran expressed satisfaction that the commissioning of the plant was going on better than planned.
Expressing satisfaction over the performance of the Odisha project, he said production was expected to cross 2 million tonnes this fiscal.
Shares of Tata Steel closed at Rs 391.10 on Friday, down 1.35 points, or 0.34 per cent, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Source: TelegraphIndia