JSW Steel (NSE:JSWSTEEL, BOM:500228) recorded a 3% year-on-year rise in consolidated crude steel production to 6.59 million tons in the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, from 6.38 million tons a year ago, according to a Thursday filing on Indian exchanges.
Topline volume growth during the April-June period faced headwinds from a prolonged capacity-enhancement shutdown at its flagship Vijayanagar plant's Blast Furnace 3 (BF3). However, the company confirmed that BF3 completed its upgrade cycle and officially resumed hot-metal production on June 23.
Excluding BF3 production from last year's base, year-on-year volumes grew 15% in the June quarter, driven by the full ramp-up of the operations of its subsidiary JSW Vijayanagar Metallics and improved utilisation at Dolvi unit.
Crude steel output from Indian operations was up 3% year-on-year to about 6.35 million tons, while production at the company's Ohio facility in the U.S. was flat at 0.24 million tons.
The capacity utilization for Indian operations for the April-June period, excluding the BF3 capacity, was at 94%.
The company's shares were up over 1% in recent trade.