SAIL saleable steel production up 10% at 4.08 MT for Apr-Jul FY07

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) today posted a saleable steel production of 4.08 million tonnes (MT) for the period April-July FY07, marking a 10 per cent growth in production during the same period last year.

The average capacity utilisation of the SAIL plants during the period was 110 per cent.

Production by SAIL's integrated steel plants at 3.94 MT was up by about 3.5 lakh tonnes compared to last year.

The Rourkela steel plant put up a strong performance with additional output of about 2 lakh tonnes of saleable steel compared to last year. The speciality steel plants of SAIL produced 1.4 lakh tonnes of saleable steel during this period, which was 30,000 tonnes more than the production during the corresponding period last year.

Energy consumption reduced by 1 per cent during the period, while production through the continuous casting route increased by 8.5 per cent.

Overall sales of the company rose by about 9 lakh tonnes during April-July 2006. With export volumes up only marginally at 1.7 lakh tonnes, compared to 1.6 lakh tonnes during the same period last year, growth in the domestic market has been sharper.

In line with SAIL's Corporate Plan target of producing 22.5 MT of hot metal, projects valued at over Rs 17,000 crore are presently in various stages of implementation in the company's plants/mines.

UNI RA DKS RS1648