Steel mills, on the other hand, feel prices have bottomed
out and now is the buyers’ turn to come forward. (Reuters)
Amidst anaemic
demand, both locally and in the export market, the domestic steel majors have
not just cut down their production, but preponed their maintenance shutdown
work at some facilities to rein in the rising inventory and also to keep the
plant future-ready, industry sources said. Depending upon the size, a blast
furnace usually requires around 20 days of a maintenance shutdown. The gap
between one maintenance work and the other relies on the health of the furnace.
“The root of the
problem is lack of demand. There is hardly any demand domestically and exports
have also dried up. While we used to keep 2-3 days of stock earlier, now we
have 15-20 days of inventory. The industry is in a very critical situation now.
Until demand picks up, there will be no respite. And, when that happens is
anybody’s guess,” said an industry source.