According to foreign media reports, due to the impact of the epidemic, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), India's state-owned steelmaker, has shut down one blast furnace at Visakhapatnam plant on March 29th, and the average daily output would be reduced by 120,000 tons.

RINL has an annual production capacity of more than 7.5 million tons, and the average output of three furnaces were about 180,000 tons. Since the existing raw materials of the steel plant could only maintain the operation of two blast furnaces, one blast furnace needed to be closed. In addition, 50% of the manpower has been asked to work from home.

Although Binoy Kumar, the Steel Secretary of India, had held a video conference with several steel companies such as RINL, SAIL, and NMDC on March 23, asking steel companies not to reduce production as much as possible, it would be hard for them to maintain the current production if the epidemic did not turn well in the future.