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Ch.R.S Sarma

Mr B.K.Panda

Visakhapatnam , Dec. 17

VISAKHAPATNAM Steel Plant (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd), which has turned around and is going all out to make profit of Rs 1,000 crore this fiscal, is making attempts to acquire captive mines of iron ore for assured supply of raw material and to cut down substantially on costs.

In an interview to Business Line here, Mr B.K Panda, Chairman and Managing Director of the public sector steel plant, said: "It would mean a saving of Rs 120 crore or so per annum for us, as we are making use of 6 million tonnes of ore per annum.''He said the company was in contact with the Governments of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to acquire captive mines and was hopeful of achieving a breakthrough. Earlier this year, immediately after he assumed charge as the CMD, the plant faced certain problems in getting the required ore from the National Mineral Development Corporation, but subsequently the situation had improved.

"We are getting the ore from Bailadilla in Chhattisgarh and a portion from Orissa. There is plenty of quality ore in the country for domestic steel production and exports, but the prices are going up all the time,'' he said.

In fact, said Mr Panda, steel prices were likely to go up further next year, as the costs of the raw materials had gone up and the manufacturers were left with no option but to hike prices.

To a question whether the firming up of prices could be attributed to the spurt in offtake by China, preparing for the Olympics, he said Olympics was the sole reason. ``China is building up infrastructure in a big way and consuming a lot of steel. Replying to a query on the proposed expansion of the capacity of the plant to 5 million tonnes from the present 3.2 million tonnes and ultimately to 10 million tonnes, he said the Union Cabinet had recently cleared the proposal for the fourth coke oven battery and the work on it would begin next month and it would be completed in 30 months.

"We are facing coke shortage sometimes as the plant is working to its capacity and even producing more. With the fourth coke oven battery, the problem would be solved. It is our aim to expand the capacity to 5 million tonnes in the next phase ,'' he said.Mr Panda said that earlier this week, the Union Power Minister, Mr Anant Geete, had presented the National Energy Conservation Award to the plant in New Delhi and he had received it. ''Ours is the lowest energy consumption steel plant in the country,'' he said.

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