The Minister for Chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan reviewed the performance of Steel Authority of India Ltd. for the first quarter of this financial year here today, in the presence of Secretary (Steel), Shri R.S. Pandey, Chairman, SAIL, Shri S.K. Roongta, the Managing Directors of the various steel plants and other officers.
In the context of the globalizing steel environment in India and the proposed entry of global mega players like Mittal Steel and POSCO into the Indian steel sector; there is a pressing need for SAIL to become internationally competitive and to further augment its steel production capabilities for ensuring that SAIL maintains its position as the leading steel producer in India.
The performance of SAIL in the first quarter of the current financial year as well as for the year 2005-06 was reviewed in this context. SAIL has attained a record first quarter profit after tax (PAT) of Rs. 1386 crores which comes to 23% over the comparable quarter of the previous financial year, making it the best performer amongst the steel companies in India. During the financial year 2005-06, SAIL had earned a profit of Rs. 4013 crores despite a lower net sales realization as compared to the preceding year.
In the first quarter of this year, SAIL’s saleable steel production was around 3 million tonnes, displaying a healthy growth of around 9% over the comparable period last year (CPLY), while the growth in sales was around 30%.
SAIL has also attained a saleable steel capacity utilization of 111% during this quarter as against 102% during the CPLY. SAIL’s capacity utilization during the year 2005-06 was 110%.
The Minister desired that SAIL extend its distribution network on a fast-track basis, particularly to the rural areas of India. District level dealerships would be set up in all the uncovered districts and eligibility norms would be suitably relaxed for ensuring that the smaller players would also be able to take up SAIL dealerships for which preference is being given to SC/ST and other weaker sections. Efforts would also be undertaken by SAIL to popularize the utilization of steel products in the rural areas.
SAIL has also shown very good improvement in its production indices like specific energy consumption, blast furnace productivity and coke rate. However, the Steel Minister desired that SAIL’s production indices should match the best international standards for withstanding global competition.
The Minister was informed that the process of merging Maharashtra Electrosmelt Ltd. (MEL), Bharat Refractories Ltd. (BRL) and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd. (NINL) was on schedule and the process is expected to be completed by the latter half of 2007.
In respect of the long-term strategic goals of SAIL, a key factor was securing the availability of coking coal overseas through aggressive measures. The Minister desired that SAIL should take pro-active action to secure sources of coking coal both overseas and in India for ensuring that its growth targets were not hampered in any way by the non-availability of this raw material.
The Minister also reminded the SAIL management of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals. SAIL proposes to spend an amount of Rs. 26 crores during the current financial year for CSR. Minister desired that this amount be spent particularly for enhancing the levels of development of poor communities living in the vicinity of SAIL’s steel plants and its captive mines.
Finally, Minister expressed hope that SAIL would take pro-active steps to sustain its position as the leading steel producer in India and emerge as a globally competitive and cost efficient company.
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(Release ID :19935)