STEEL MINISTER REVIEWS Q-I PERFORMANCE OF SAIL
Steel Authority of
India Ltd. (SAIL), the giant public sector undertaking of the
Steel Ministry has recorded a net profit of Rs. 255 crore in the
first quarter of financial year as against a net loss of Rs. 309
crore in April-June 2002. The company achieved a sales turnover
of Rs. 4765 crore during the period with a growth of 14 per cent
over the corresponding period of last year. This information was
given by the Chairman, SAIL, Shri V.S.Jain in the Q-I review meeting
taken today by the Minister for Steel Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy.
Shri Jain said that SAIL reduced its borrowings by Rs. 896 crores
during the Q-I of this fiscal. Total borrowings have been brought
down from Rs. 12970 crore to Rs. 12074 crore. Cost control savings
have fetched Rs. 71 crore during the quarter and the debt-equity
ratio has come down from 6.52 on March 31, 2003 to 5.71. SAIL
has produced 1.9 lakh tonnes rails during the quarter as against
1.8 lakh tonnes in the same period last year.
The Chairman
further briefed that four main integrated steel plants Bhillai,
Durgapur, Rourkela and Bokaro together produced 2.56 million tonnes
of saleable steel during the first quarter of 2003-04 which is
8.6 per cent higher than the 2.36 million tonnes produced in the
corresponding period of last year. During the quarter there was
a jump in production of high value items like plates (40%), tinplates
(15%) and CRNO (7%) over the same period last year. There has
been an improvement in specific energy consumption with a reduction
of 1.83 per cent during the quarter. SAIL during the quarter exported
around 3.3 lakh tonnes, a growth of 162 per cent over the corresponding
period last year.
The Minister
asked SAIL to improve its share in the domestic market and to
ensure full utilisation of the production capacity. He appreciated
the SAIL's export performances during the quarter and asked to
expand it further. He asked to prepare a time bound programme
for completing the rest of the restructuring work specially rightsizing
its manpower to 1 lakh by 2005. The Minister said that this is
the time for SAIL to move ahead with full dedication and ensure
that the tempo of financial performance is maintained to achieve
a turnaround during this fiscal.
