Industry & Economy
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Steel
`World steel output may cross 1-b tonne'
Our Bureau
The Union Minister for Steel, Mr B.K. Tripathy, pressing a button to mark the inauguration of concrete laying for coke oven battery-4 at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant on Wednesday. The Secretary (Steel), Ms Binoo Sen, and the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the steel plant, Mr B.K. Panda (extreme left) are also seen. — C.V. Subrahmanyam.
Visakhapatnam
,
Feb. 18
THERE is an upsurge in the world steel market during 2003, with the production of crude steel touching 963 million tonnes, a hike of seven per cent over the previous year's output.
The production during the current year is expected to cross the one-billion-tonne mark, according to the Union Steel Minister, Mr B.K. Tripathy.
He was speaking at the Formation Day celebrations of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd here on Wednesday. He said in spite of raw material problems, RINL had shown remarkable growth.
``This plant has got into trouble since the construction stage and in the late nineties the steel market was in a recession, adding to its woes. The accumulated losses of the plant mounted to Rs 4,500 crore, but during the past two years it had turned around remarkably, wiping out losses of Rs 1,000 crore. It became debt-free last September. The net profit this year may touch Rs 1,200 crore,'' he said.
Earlier in the day, he had laid the foundation stone for the fourth coke oven battery at the plant and said efforts were afoot to acquire captive iron ore mines for RINL.
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