'Concerned over imports from China and Asean'

JSW Steel, the country's largest steelmaker by domestic capacity, reported a 63.9 per cent Y-o-Y drop in consolidated net profit at ₹845 crore in Q1FY25. In an audio interview, JAYANT ACHARYA, joint managing director and chief executive officer of JSW Steel, tells Ishita Ayan Dutt about the positives on the operations side even as low-cost imports played spoil sport. Edited excerpts:

- Ishita Ayan Dutt

Raw material prices had softened and yet JSW recorded a sharp drop in net profit. What led to the weak performance?

Actually, from an operations perspective, the performance is not weak. We had very good demand in the country despite some interruptions due to election activity and heat waves. So, we were able to realign our domestic sales mix and our Indian operations had the highest Q1 sales.

The raw material cost on account of coking coal fell and we were able to get the advantage. Iron ore prices increased between the quarters but we had a better regional mix with sourcing from our mines in Karnataka. And we were able to focus on the value-added piece. However, Chinese exports increased and started hitting the world market. It impacted steel prices from the latter half of May and in June. That softened the sentiments in India as well. The long product prices also moderated because of the oncoming monsoons.

Are you engaging with the government on imports?