• JSW diverts oxygen supplies to hospitals as Indian COVID-19 outbreak rages

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      Patrick Lavery

      Combustion Industry News Editor


India’s largest steelmaker, JSW, has been forced to reduce production due to complications related to the tragic COVID-19 wave that is sweeping the country, as the Financial Times reports. Oxygen shortages due to demand for the vital gas for respirators has been one major factor – JSW has redirected its oxygen supplies to hospitals – and reduced demand and challenges in vaccinating staff, contractors, and their families (altogether around 1 million people) have also contributed. Production has fallen by 10%, a significant but modest amount in the circumstances, but expectations at the start of the year, before the current outbreak began, were that this would be a boom time for Indian industry, with demand and production soaring as India and the world recovered from the disruption of last year. One consolation for JSW is that the share price has held fairly strong, a sign of investor confidence that production will recover in the medium term.