SIIL EARNS Rs 8.98 CRORE PROFIT IN H-I

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The Sponge Iron India Limited (SIIL), a public sector unit of the Steel Ministry has achieved a net profit of Rs. 8.98 crore during April-September 2003-04, more than 3 times the target. Out of this the company earned a profit of Rs. 4.04 crore in the first quarter and Rs. 4.94 crore in the second quarter. Achievement of net profit of Rs. 8.98 Crore in the first six months against an annual target of Rs. 4.77 Crore is indeed a creditable achievement, today said Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy while reviewing the H-1 performance of the company. SIIL in H-I achieved a production of 35,091 tonnes of sponge iron and sales of 34,037 tonnes. A target of 66,000 tonnes each has been fixed for production and sales for the entire year 2003-04.

The Minister congratulated the SIIL collective for their remarkable achievement in the first half of the financial year and asked the company to keep it up. He was glad to know that SIIL has reduced 2,200 tonnes of sponge iron stock on April 1, 2003 to nil during the first six months of the year and has liquidated the waste product to the extent of Rs. 9 lakh against a target of Rs. 14 lakh for the entire year. The Minister asked to plan reduction of manpower and strategies for further increase in production and productivity. He suggested to bring down the raw material cost per tonne and to increase the labour productivity.

The Minister was happy to note that the company has helped the Orissa Minerals Development Corporation Ltd. (OMDC) in preparation of a technical and feasibility report for setting up a hundred tonne per day sponge iron plant at Thakurani, Orissa.

The CMD Shri Rajat Chakravarty briefed that the achievements of the company is due to high capacity utilisation, high fuel efficiency, low financial burden and increase in net sales realisation per tonne of sponge iron.