ET reported that Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd has begun to feel the general slowdown in the economy at large though the company has not cut down its production or sent some of its over 17,000 fulltime workers on furlough. An Official said that “Some of the specialty steel we are producing is used by re-rolling mills to make flange applications. We recently produced 430 mm rounds for the first time, and this has demonstrated our capacity to produce specialty steel. The steel plant has not cut down its production, nor cancelled any shift because the off-take in the market for steel, generally, has slackened in recent months. RINL is a public sector company, so we cannot send our workers on furlough. We are trying to cut costs in other areas of the steel manufacturing process.”
However, in a clear indication that the demand for Vizag Steel’s products was down, the company’s inventory had increased to 6.8 lakh tonnes. He said that “Our marketing department is working to decrease the inventory. Our normal inventory is between 3 lakh and 4 lakh tonnes.”
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