Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) Saraswati Prasad said on Thursday that Bhilai Steel Plant’s (BSP) new BF#8 ‘Mahamaya’ and SMS-III were commissioned during FY’18 and the Plant has also supplied long rail panels (260 metres) to Indian Railways from new
Universal Rail Mill (URM), registering a growth of around 112 per cent in FY’18.
He was addressing shareholders of SAIL during the company’s 46th Annual General Meeting held in New Delhi, a SAIL press release informed.
“The persistent strategic approach to improve operational profitability assisted SAIL to improve the EBIDTA in FY’18 to Rs 5,184 crore, a substantial increase over FY’17”, Prasad said.
He added that the improved operational performance is backed by increase in Saleable Steel production, higher share of Concast production, improved product mix, improvement in BF Productivity, reduction in Coke Rate & Specific Energy consumption, reduction in specific wage bill etc.In FY’18, after slimming losses by around 83%, company’s Profit After Tax (PAT) on standalone basis improved to Rs(-) 482 crore from Rs(-) 2833 crore in FY’17.
The consolidated profit after tax of the Company stood at Rs(-) 281 crore for FY’18 as against Rs(-) 2,756 crore in FY’17, he said.
Prasad said that SAIL has almost finished its balance Modernisation & Expansion Programme.
He reiterated that FY’18 witnessed several landmark achievements through ramping up of new facilities and surpassing previous records in physical performance. SAIL achieved its highest ever production of Hot Metal of 15.983 MT, Crude Steel of 15.021 MT and Saleable Steel of 14.071 MT.
The company also clocked an all-time best performance of Continuous-Cast (CC) Steel production of 12.80 MT with a growth of 9% over previous best of 11.77 MT, achieved in FY’17, Prasad said.
He added that, on the back of various new initiatives to improve productivity and efficiency across all Plants, every Unit has registered improvement. At Durgapur Steel Plant, Narrow Gauge Wheels from Wheel & Axle Plant and High Strength Structural E350 grade from Medium Structural Mill were developed In-house.
Sighting positive outlook for global and domestic steel industry, Prasad said that growth in domestic steel consumption is strongly backed by robust development of India’s infrastructure sector.
It is further supported by 7.8% growth in domestic finished steel consumption during the FY’18, as a result of growing activities of steel intensive sectors, he said.
