The Steel Authority of India Ltd., (SAIL), the giant public sector undertaking of the Steel Ministry achieved the best ever production of 11 million tonnes of saleable steel during the financial year 2003-04 with a growth of 6 percent over the previous year. Its record sales of 10.8 million tonnes in domestic and overseas market during the year showed 7 percent growth over the performance of 2002-03. Its production of 12.9 million tonnes of hot metal and 12.1 million tonnes of crude steel also registered growth of 6 and 7 percent respectively against the production during the previous year. The four integrated steel plants of SAIL, Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur and Rourkela together produced 12.8 million tonnes of hot metal, 11.8 million tonnes of crude steel and 10.7 million tonnes of saleable steel during the year. Average capacity utilisation in these plants was 105 percent. The impressive performance saw substantial growth in production of value-added products like plates (24%), rails (5%), CRNO steels (10%), galvanized products (11%) and wire rods (6%).
During 2003-04, SAIL sold an additional volume of 5 lakh tonnes in the domestic market. Exports at 1.16 million tonnes were 36% higher than the previous year. In the latter part of the year exports were curtailed consciously to make more steel available in the domestic market and thus help in stabilising steel prices in the country. A thrust on reducing cost of finance led to SAIL's overall debt declining by around Rs. 4,500 crore during the year to a level of about Rs. 8,500 crore. Total interest charges were reduced by about Rs. 400 crore in comparison to FY '03. Further, the company's overall energy consumption reduced by 1% to the lowest-ever level of 7.42 Geal/tonne of crude steel and blast furnace productivity improved by 1% to reach the best-ever rate of 1.53 tonnes/cu.m./day. The total cost of production of saleable steel was reduced by more than 4% in 2003-04 over the previous year.
Thrust was laid on upgradation work of some important facilities like long rail production unit at Bhilai Steel Plant's Rail Mill and ERW Pipe Plant at Rourkela during the year. Approval was also granted for other major projects like bloom caster for Durgapur Steel Plant, rebuilding of batteries and quality improvement scheme for Plate Mill at BSP, and upgradation of BF-4 at Rourkela Steel Plant. SAIL achieved a further reduction of around 5,000 in its workforce through VRS and natural separation during the year. Due to improvements in operational efficiencies, labour productivity grew by 9%.
(Release ID :1450)