N.C. Mathur, director for corporate affairs, also said JSL had deferred by a year investments of 50 billion rupees into expansion, as demand for the rustproof steel remained slack while the outlook was "tough" for six months.
Much of JSL's steel is used in the infrastructure and industrial sectors, which have been hit hard by the economic downturn.
"Demand is slack," Mathur said on the sidelines of a steel conference, "We had a huge cost of nickel inventories. We had done some shutdowns, which took longer than expected.JSL, which controls 35 percent of the Indian market, posted losses in the December and the September quarters, and saw profits plunge two-thirds in the June quarter. It has not yet published March quarter results.
Much of the losses were due to souring bets on foreign exchange and commodity prices, as prices of nickel MNI3, a key ingredient, collapsed nearly two-thirds in the fiscal year.
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