The Indian operations of Tata Steel reported a marginal dip in sales during the first quarter of the fiscal after a part of the three-month period bore the brunt of export duty.

Delivery volume stood at 4.06 million tonnes (mt) in the first quarter compared with 4.15mt in the same period of the last fiscal, a 2 per cent drop as the company focused on scaling up domestic sales to compensate for the export loss.

Compared with the preceding quarter, the delivery volume came off sharply from 5.12mt in January-March, a drop of 20.7 per cent.

The company acknowledged that the moderation in sales was due to the export levy of 15 per cent. The duty was imposed on May 22 to curb soaring inflation. Almost 95 per cent of the finished steel export was hit by the duty, designed to discourage export and increase domestic supply to weigh down on prices.

Tata Steel’s domestic deliveries were ramped up by 5 per cent by leveraging a solid distribution network, partly offsetting the loss from export.

The highlights of the domestic sales were a 22 per cent growth in automotive and special products, an 8 per cent growth in industrial products and project segment meant for the engineering sector and a 77 per cent jump in sales on the e-commerce platform Tata Steel Aashiyana for individual home builders. Tata Tiscon, the TMT bar from the company, also registered the best ever quarterly sales with the help of expanded physical and virtual reach.

In Europe, deliveries were also down to 2.16mt in Q1, down 7.3 per cent from 2.33mt recorded in the same period of the last year. Overall, Tata Steel Group’s delivery stood at 6.53mt (including Thailand) compared with 6.83mt in the Q1 of 2021-22.

Production up

While deliveries were down, domestic production increased by 6 per cent year-onyear to 4.92mt from 4.63mt. On a sequential basis, the production was nearly flat.

In Europe, production stood at 2.43mt, down from 2.67mt a year ago.