Central India: Steel Units in Chhattisgarh Unlikely to Resume Operations Before April End

In a recent meeting held with several MSME steel associations of Chhattisgarh, Raipur it was decided by the manufacturers that they will continue to keep their operations on hold till the end of Apr'20.

Following are the key concerns highlighted by Raipur based plants:

Logistics constraints: Out of total steel produced in Chhattisgarh, approximately 60-70% material is supplied to other states in southern, western & northern India. However due to restrictions on intrastate logistic movement along with closed markets in India, the manufacturers don't want to take risk as stock might get piled up once they resume operations due to unavailability of buyers and halt in construction activities as well.

Challenges on raw material availability: The industry believe that the raw material crisis is likely to increase further once they resume operations as there is no availability of vehicles if they source material by road.

Limited manpower availability: As per govt notification the plants can resume their work with only about 40% of workforce than they engaged earlier. In this term the producers claimed that without required workforce they can't operate their mills as the manpower plays a key role in industry's performance.

No relaxations in power tariffs yet: Further the industrialists in Raipur claimed that they were poised with high power charges as there was no relaxation on their taxation of electricity bills.

Demand for relief fund: The producers are also demanding the government to announce a relief fund for industries as they are loaded with heavy losses since the industries are closed due to nationwide lockdown from 24th Mar'20.