The Hindu Business Line : SAIL bets on good export growth

STEEL Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) hopes to end the current financial yearwith a 9-10 per cent in sales growth in terms of volume and 25-30 per cent in sales growth in terms value, the the newly-appointed Director (Commercial) of SAIL, Mr S.K. Roongta, has said.

According to him, exports of SAIL are likely to be in the region of 12-13 lakh tonnes. "We will be successful in registering good export growth despite the fact that SAIL is predominantly a domestic player. We are constantly trying to meet the demands of the domestic buyers before considering the needs of overseas players," Mr Roongta told presspersons.

During April-December 2003-04, SAIL's total exports were 8.6 lakh tonnes against 6.3 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. Regarding special products, he said, it would register a sales growth of 30 per cent during the current financial year.

In 2002-03, SAIL sold 10.1 million tonnes of steel for a total value of Rs 19,207 crore. The Central Marketing Office h achieved a 12-per cent growth in total sales during the April-January 2003-04 period. More than 10 million tonnes of steel has already been sold.

Meanwhile, he said, SAIL is busy in preparing a growth plan whereby its total production base will increase 66 per cent from 12 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes by 2010. According to Mr Roongta, this growth will come mostly from de-bottlenecking and minor addition in the existing capacities. Once again, SAIL ruled out any fresh greenfield expansion.

"As India is still a developing country, our growth in the production base will be more for long products rather than flat products. But before that we will have to sort out the current crisis in coking coal", he said.

When inquired about the investments that SAIL will make to hike its capacity, Mr Roongta was non-committal. He said it will depend on many factors and there is no exact figure as such.