STEEL MINISTER ASKS VSP TO SUSTAIN GRWOTH AND ACHIEVE NET PROFIT

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Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), a Public Sector Undertaking of the Steel Ministry has achieved all round good performance during the year 2001-02. It has exceeded its rated capacity of production in all the units. But there is no scope of complacency and the plant should sustain its momentum of growth to achieve net profit during this fiscal, said the Union Minister for Steel, Shri B.K.Tripathy while reviewing the plant's 2001-02 performance here today. He observed that MoU targets set for the year was lower than the actual achievement of the previous year. The targets set for this fiscal also needs to be revised. He asked the plant to raise its net sales realisation and maximise its sales turn-over to quickly reduce the losses accumulated over the years. The Minister emphasized on improvement of net sales realisation of WRM products which is vital for the company's performance. WRM products account for about 35 per cent of total saleable steel and has a good market today, he said. The Minister stressed on market expansion, cost reduction, reduction in inventory, the production of special value-added items and more research and development for upgradation of its technology. The area of focus, he said, should be better energy consumption practices, reduction in over-head expenditure, better practices in the use of raw materials and improvement in operational parameters to achieve all round growth. The Secretary Steel, Shri N.N.Khanna, the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of VSP, Dr. B.N.Singh, and senior officers of the Ministry and the Plant attended the meeting.