Paswan pats SAIL for its performance

New Delhi, Mar 31 (UNI) Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan who reviewed the quarterly performance of the public sector Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) here commended the company for its performance.

The Minister asked the company to stick to the schedule for implementing its expansion programme. He said, there should be no delay in the agreed schedule and the additional capacities should be commissioned by June 2010.

The company has recorded 11 per cent growth in the production of hot metal and crude steel in the third quarter of 2006-07 over the previous quarter.

During the first nine months of this year, the production of saleable steel went up by six per cent to 9.3 Million Tonnes (MT), sales went up by 13 per cent to 8.4 MT and exports recorded a rise of four per cent at four lakh tonnes (LT). The capacity utilisation during the third quarter was at 119 per cent and 112 per cent during the nine month period.

Making a presentation, SAIL Chairman S K Roongta said, the turnover of the company went up by 25 per cent to Rs 27,655 crore during the April-December 2006 and net profit shot up by 48 per cent during the period to Rs 4,300 crore.

During the third quarter the net profit of the company is Rs 1471 crore, a rise of 124 per cent over the same period last year.

Mr Roongta said, Rourkela Steel Plant recorded a phenomenal rise in production during April-December 2006.

While the production of saleable steel recorded a 34 per cent jump, the growth in the production of hot metal and crude steel was 31 per cent.

He said, the Durgapur Steel Plant recorded the highest ever production of hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel during the October-December 2006.

Compared to the previous quarter, the production of hot metal went up by 45 per cent, crude steel by 40 per cent and saleable steel by 20 per cent. The SAIL Chairman apprised the Minister of the progress of the expansion plans of various plants.

Secretary, Ministry of Steel R S Pandey who was present during the review said, the project management structure should be in place and all vacant positions for implementation of the projects should be filled up at the earliest.

He said, intra plant variation in operational efficiency should be bridged.

Special Secretary Ministry of Steel A K Rath, Managing Directors of Different units under SAIL and senior Ministry and SAIL officials were present during the review.

UNI