JSW Steel in April said that it is making preparations to restart operations at all its units once the nationwide lockdown is lifted. On March 25, the company had informed the stock exchanges of its decision to scale down or suspend production.

Currently, JSW Steel has four blast furnaces and two ‘corex’ in Ballari, Karnataka, one blast furnace in Mah Dolvi and one under construction, and two blast furnaces in Salem, Tamil Nadu and the Monnet blast furnace in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

“The company is making all preparations to recommence operations at all locations on lifting of lockdown in the next few days,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company said that the slowdown in economic activity due to unanticipated breakout of coronavirus pandemic and consequent 21-day nationwide lockdown from March 24 midnight led to a sharp fall in production across plant locations. JSW Steel reported 3.97 million tonnes of crude steel production for the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY 2019-20.

The company’s crude steel production during January and February 2020 in aggregate was higher than that of previous year by 1 percent. It said that the company achieved 97.3 per cent of revised production guidance of 16.50 million tonnes of FY 2019-20. JSW Steel said that it could have almost achieved the revised guidance if there was no such exceptional event like the coronavirus pandemic.