Tata Steel India witnessed highest ever annual sales in Branded Products and Retail segment with an increase of 8% over FY19.

As the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak continues to spread across the world, many countries have been taking actions to restrict movement of people and industrial activities. The Government of India announced a nationwide lockdown with effect from 25th Mar 2020 to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus. As per notifications from the Central and State Governments of India, Steel and Mining, being essential services and continuous process industries, are exempt from the lockdown measures subject to certain guidelines. However, the lockdown has led to logistic issues and lower demand driven by the shutdown of customer operations in automotive, construction and other segments since last few days of March 2020.

While this affected 4QFY20 sales volumes in India, however, production volume grew 6%YoY to 4.74 mn tons. Tata Steel India also achieved an 8%YoY production growth for the full year FY20, along with the best ever annual sales. This was supported by ramp up of Tata Steel BSL and acquisition of Usha Martin Steel business by Tata Steel Long products; Tata Steel BSL also recorded its best ever annual performance.

Tata Steel India witnessed highest ever annual sales in Branded Products and Retail segment with an increase of 8% over FY19. The company was successful in maintaining volumes for Industrial Products & Projects segment with a strong increase in sales in Oil & Gas and Industrial Pipe segment. It also sustained its focus on Automotive & Special products segment and increased share of high-end sales in the segment volume from 19.5% in FY19 to 25% in FY20.

Based on the specific guidelines from Central and State Governments, the company have been able to operate its mining operations normally. In the view of these conditions including practical constraints in continuing operations, the company is operating integrated steelmaking facilities at lower utilization levels; operations at the downstream facilities have been suspended and put on care and maintenance mode.

Tata Steel Europe is also cooperating with national guidelines of the relevant countries to combat COVID-19. Despite macro headwinds, the company was able to keep production and sales stable in 4QFY20 compared to 3QFY20. Overall European steel demand has declined compared to the normal conditions as many customers, including European car manufacturers, have currently paused production. The utilization levels are currently around 70% and dispatches are continuing in both UK and Netherlands.

In these unprecedented times and rapidly evolving situation, the company's first and foremost priority is the health and safety of its employees. While the company is focused on conserving cash and ensuring adequate liquidity, it continues to monitor the situation closely and has taken several initiatives to ensure that the operations are in a state of readiness to ramp back as the situation improves and normalcy is restored.
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