RSP APRIL PRODUCTION UP 12.3 PER CENT

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The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has produced 1,22,140 tonnes of saleable steel during April 2002 recording a growth of 12.3 per cent over April last year. The production of 1,24,695 tonnes of Hot metal and 1,06,555 tonnes of crude steel was also 8.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent more than the previous April. The plant has achieved best April performance since inception in the production of sinter , hot metal continuous cast slabs, HR coils and saleable steel. It had the best daily hot metal production of 5733 tonnes on April 28 surpassing the earlier best of 5610 tonnes achieved in January 2002.

In the marketing front, RSP has achieved best ever April despatches of 60497 tonnes of HR coils and 1,20,616 tonnes of saleable steel showing growth of 52.2 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively over the performance of last April. RSP's continued thrust on value added products remained intact . On the techno-economic front, the plant performed well recording the best coke rate of 580 kg per tonne of hot metal surpassing the previous best achieved in March 2002. As a part of the proactive strategy RSP completed major repairs of its blast furnace no.4 right on schedule during the month.

During 2002-03, RSP has set out to achieve near capacity utilisation by producing 1.8 million tonnes of Hot metal, 1.687 million tonnes of Crude Steel and 1.653 million tonnes of saleable steel envisaging a growth of nearly 22.7 percent, 26.4 per cent and 22.1 per cent respectively.