India: Tata Steel Q3FY'22 highlights

Steel giant Tata Steel reported that India's apparent steel consumption rose 13% q-o-q in Q3FY'22 on recovering economies along with the government's spending on infrastructure and construction goods remained steady. However, automotives continued to be impacted by semiconductor chip shortages, SteelMint learned from the company's investor call held today.

The steel giant also gave an update on its 5 mntpa Kalinganagar Phase II expansion plan which includes a pellet plant and a cold rolling mill, saying that it is progressing well.

Production and sales in Q3FY'22

• Crude steel production stood at 4.81 million tonnes (mnt) in Q3FY'22, up by 2% against 4.73 mnt in Q2FY'22 and 4% against 4.60 mnt in Q3FY'21.
  
  
• Steel sales aggregated to 4.42 mnt in Q3, down 3% against 4.58 mnt in Q2. On an annualised basis, sales dropped 5% against 4.65 mnt in the same period last year.
  
  
• Out of total sales, domestic stood at 3.92 mnt, up 2% against 3.85 mnt a quarter ago. Exports accounted for 0.50 mnt of the total sales during the quarter under review.
  
  

Tata Tiscon's retail sales up

• Tata Tiscon saw a 24% y-o-y growth in retail sales. Also, in 9MFY'22, the same grew by 53% y-o-y.
  
  

Long products capacity to increase after NINL acquisition

• Tata Steel Long Products had announced winning the bid for acquiring 93.71% stake in NINL for INR 12,100 crore, SteelMint also reported earlier. The company expects that this will increase TSL's long products capacity as well as its iron ore reserves.
  
  

NINL's current steelmaking capacity is at around 1 mnt, with captive iron ore mines having 100 mnt reserves.

Tata Steel Long Products

• Crude steel production stood at 171,000 t in Q3FY'22, down q-o-q against 175,000 t in Q2. On a y-o-y basis, production volumes were lower against 173,000 t seen in Q3FY'21.
  
  
• Steel sales lowered q-o-q to 164,000 t in Q3FY'22 against 168,000 t a quarter ago due to planned shutdowns. On a yearly basis, the same edged down by 2,000 t against 166,000 t seen in Q3FY'21.
  
  

Q4 outlook
The company expects that Indian steel demand may remain supported by the government's push for infrastructure spending and consumer demand while steel prices will remain resilient on the back of sustained improvements in demand and cost push.