Tata Steel cuts down production across all major operations in Inda and Europe

Kolkata: Tata Steel has cut down production across all its major operations in Inda and Europe amid the COVID -19 outbreak. In India, this includes its integrated steel plants at Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar and the Tata Steel Bhushan unit in Angul. Announcing this in an official statement on Wednesday, the company said: "Based on the specific guidance and approvals received from the relevant District Administration, the company’s mining operations have been operating normally but the integrated steel facilities in Jamshedpur, Kalinganagar Angul (Tata Steel BSL) and Gamahria (Tata Steel Long Products) have started reducing production levels and operations in the downstream facilities have been suspended and put on care and maintenance mode.

The company also said in view of the restrictions in the despatch of finished goods and poor market conditions due to the shutdown of customer operations in automotive, construction and other segments, shipments to customers have been curtailed. "All payments to MSME vendors and contract workers are being done on due dates," the statement added.

In Europe, Tata Steel said it has scaled down blast furnace operations in both its steelmaking hubs in the UK and the Netherlands and has revised customer despatches. The company said "overall European steel demand has sharply reduced compared to the normal conditions and many of our customers have paused production, including European car manufacturers.Tata Steel Europe has therefore reduced production at some of the European mills to match this lower demand."

Tata Steel Europe is currently operating all four blast furnaces at a reduced level across the two steelmaking hubs- in Ijmuiden in the Netherlands and Port Talbot, Wales and despatches to customers is currently continuing at the revised levels, the statement added.