Daily Times

Amreli Steel Mills Limited (ASTL) has clarified a snapshot circulating in the market and social media regarding the closing of new orders’ booking by the company due to excess orders in hand and suspension of production for the last few days.

In a notification to Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), ASTL clarified that the information regarding the company about not taking new orders was circulated only to its authorised dealers and stockists through WhatsApp messaging as a routine business practice and was not meant for the consumption of the public in general.

Without the consent of the company, one of the stockists disseminated the said internal communication to the public using Amreli’s logo without authorisation. The management of the company took this unauthorised act seriously and although the stockist did not do it with any bad intention, a written cautioning notice was served on the respective stockist.

To clarify further, the snapshot in question remained effective only for a day (i.e. 03 December 2020) as from the next day, the company started booking orders as usual. The average sales of the company per day is about 900 to 1,000 metric tons. The communication, therefore, surrounds only 0.29 percent of the total estimated annual sales of 350,000 metric tons (1,000/350,000 100) which, in the company’s considered opinion is immaterial and hence could not have affected the share price of the company in any way.

The communication, therefore, was neither shared with the market participants nor a rebuttal of the snapshot was sent to the bourse.The statement further said that regarding PSX observation on the shutdown of the operations, the notice by ASTL said that each year the plants take a shutdown of ten to fifteen days on account of annual maintenance in the normal course of business as a routine requirement of the production process.