JSW Steel Reports Higher Q3 Production amid Price-Fixing Allegations

JSW Steel produced more steel in the December quarter of FY26 even as it faces scrutiny from the Competition Regulator of India (CCI) over alleged price-fixing in the steel industry.

The company's total crude steel production stood at 7.48 million tonnes (MT) in Q3 FY26, up 6% year-on-year (YoY), the company reported in a stock exchange filing. In the same quarter last year, JSW Steel had produced 7.03 MT of crude steel across its India and US operations.

The company also explained that production in the quarter under review was partly impacted because one of its major units, the Blast Furnace 3 (BF3) at its Vijayanagar plant, has been shut since the end of September 2025 for a capacity upgrade.

This furnace is expected to restart by the end of the March quarter. Because of this shutdown, overall capacity use at its Indian plants was lower. Excluding this furnace, capacity utilisation was 93%, but including it, the figure dropped to 85%.

Notably, this production update comes at a time when the steelmaker has been accused of colluding prices in the steel market. CCI has found that JSW Steel, Tata Steel, state-run SAIL, and 25 other companies violated antitrust laws by allegedly colluding on steel prices. The findings are based on a Reuters report which has cited confidential CCI order from October 2025.

As a result of these findings, the CCI has reportedly held 56 senior executives, including JSW Steel’s Managing Director Sajjan Jindal, Tata Steel CEO T.V. Narendran, and several former SAIL chairpersons. These executives are allegedly responsible for the price coordination between 2015 and 2023, the Reuters report added.

The case stems from 2021 after a group of builders accused steel companies of restricting supply and pushing up prices together. The probe later widened to cover 31 companies and multiple industry bodies, with raids conducted at smaller steel firms in 2022, according to a separate Reuters report.

Under India's competition law, the CCI can impose penalties of up to three times a company’s profits or 10% of its turnover for each year of wrongdoing, while senior executives can also face individual fines.