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New Delhi, July 6 (PTI) The world''s sixth largest steel maker Tata Steel today said it witnessed a flat growth in the first quarter sales at 1.39 million tonnes as compared to the year-ago period due to "weak market sentiments" and "excessive imports from China". In the corresponding period last year, the steel major''s sales stood at 1.4 million tonnes. "The first quarter sales at 1.396 million tonnes, were almost similar to that of the corresponding period of last year, primarily on account of weak market sentiments in commercial segment of flat products and excessive imports of hot-rolled coil (HRC) from China," the company said in a statement here. Hot-rolled coil is primary steel product from which other vital items are carved. Steel industry witnessed rise in price of raw materials like iron ore and coking coal, which it could not pass on to the consumers amid a dip in demand and price of commodity on fears of over supply from China. HRC price in China is hovering in the range of USD 500- 520 a tonne at present from around USD 600 a tonne in the beginning of the first quarter of the fiscal. Imports in April had surged 47.9 per cent to 6.6 lakh tonnes. It has now reached a million tonne level, analysts said. The company, further said, sales of the flat products, used mainly in automobile sector surged by 20 per cent during the quarter compared to the corresponding period last year while that of the long products, used primarily in construction saw an increase of 8 per cent in sales. During the quarter under review, Tata Steel saw its saleable steel production surging by 3.17 per cent to 1.59 million tonnes against 1.5 million tonnes last year. Tata Steel''s crude steel output for the first quarter of the current fiscal surged by 8.25 per cent to 1.62 million tonnes over the year-ago period. The company produced 1.5 million tonnes of crude steel in April-June last fiscal. The company said its hot metal production surged 8.24 per cent in the April-June quarter to 1.82 million tonnes. Tata Steel produced 1.6 million tonnes of hot metal in the same period last year. On the steel sector outlook, Joint Plant Committee Chief Economist A S Firoz had yesterday said the July-September period will see erosion of profitability of steel companies as the gloomy demand scenario would prevent them from hiking rates amid high input cost pressure. Steel firms have seen prices coming down by up to Rs 6,000 a tonne to around Rs 27,000-Rs 33,000 a tonne in past few months as construction work slowed down ahead of monsoon. PTI SCV NAM.
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