Steel major JSW Steel today said its crude steel production was lower at 3.25 million tonnes (MT) for the second quarter for the FY 2015-16. "Our crude steel production for the quarter ended September 2015 was lower at 3.25 MT as compared to 3.30 MT in Q2 last year as one of the blast furnaces at Vijayanagar works was taken under shut down for relining and is expected to be re-commissioned in early December 2015," a company statement said.

The production of flat rolled products declined by 2 per cent at 2.57 MT, while production of long rolled products increased by 15 per cent at 0.64 MT in Q2 FY16, the release said. The company achieved cumulative crude steel production of 6.65 million tons in the first half of FY 16 showing a growth of 4 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.

 The minor leakage of blast furnace gas has also hit working at the Salem plant, which was under shutdown from August 28 following a directive from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for around two weeks and the plant restarted on October 10 on revocation of closure notice by the concerned authorities. Following the report submitted by a multi-disciplinary committee constituted by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the representations made by the company, the closure order was revoked and the operations of the Salem plant resumed. The company said it has adopted latest eco-friendly technologies and it ranked at No.6 among the 36 world class steel companies by World Steel Dynamics.

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