Vishakhaptanam
Steel Plant (VSP) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), a
public sector undertaking of the Steel Ministry had spectacular
performance during the last three years which resulted in achieving
a net profit of Rs. 207 crore during April-December 2002. During
the first three-quarters of this fiscal, it has produced 2.5
million tonnes of liquid steel and has earned a gross margin
of Rs. 671 crore. The Minister for Steel Shri Braja Kishore
Tripathy informed the Consultative Committee attached to his
Ministry which met at Vishakhapatanam today that the company
had a loss of Rs. 2032.78 crore in 1993, the initial year of
its commercial production. So the Government approved two restructuring
packages one in 1993 and the second in 1998.
The Minister
said that the fourth coke-oven battery whose foundation stone
was laid today at VSP is a step forward in its expansion plans.
This will help VSP to meet its coke-needs for the blast furnace
and help increase production levels. This will also help the
company to function smoothly when the existing coke-oven batteries
go one by one for rebuilding in next few years. The project
is expected to be completed within 2/3 years. The battery will
be similar to the existing batteries with improved autonomous
facilities.
The Minister
informed that RINL has become the first fully certified ISO-9002
integrated steel plant in the country. It has been recommended
for re-certification of the 2000 version of ISO-9001 for 3 years
by the Bureau Veritab Quality International (BVQI) for maintenance
of quality management system in entire operation. It has recently
bagged the 'SCOPE award for excellence and outstanding contribution
to the public sector mangement-special turnaround category'.
The company has received the best management award from the
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the year 2001 for its contribution
to the maintenance of good industrial relations. He urged the
authorities to concentrate on maximising the net sales realisation
both in domestic sales and exports. He stressed on quality and
customer friendly services.
Shri Tripathy said
that as proposed by the members two years back wage revision
of the workers has been taken up which has boost the morale
of the employees. He pointed out that the problem of water shortage
in the company and said that Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure
Corporation (APIIC) has taken up the Godavari Pumping project
which would go a long way in solving this crisis.
Earlier, the
Minister urged the steel manufacturers to avail the opportunity
of resurgence of national and international steel demand and
the firming up of steel prices to achieve all-round growth.
He asked them to continuously modernise and upgrade their technology
to reduce costs of production to meet the cut-throat competition
in the global market. He mentioned that the production of steel
during the first three-quarters of this fiscal has grown by
6.3 per cent, pig iron by 34 per cent and exports by 21.6 per
cent compared to the same period last year.
Regarding disinvestment
of RINL, Shri Tripathy said that on the basis of Steel Ministry's
papers the Department of Disinvestment submitted a proposal
which has been discussed by Union Finance, Steel and Disinvestment
Ministers and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. No final
decision has been taken by the Ministry of Disinvestment.
The Members
of the Committee appreciated the devotion and whole hearted
efforts made by the employees of the plant to earn net profit
during this fiscal. They said that the Ministry and the Plant
authorities should take steps to protect the interest of the
employees which would boost up their morale and lead to further
progress.
The members
of Parliament who attended the meeting are S/Shri Sunil Khan,
Tilakdhari Prasad Singh, Lalmuni Choubey, Manoj Sinha, Manjay
Lal, Shriram Chauhan, Jibon Roy and Gaya Singh.
