The Hindu Business Line : RINL sales may touch Rs 7,000-cr mark

THE sales turnover of Visakhapatnam steel plant (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd) is likely to touch the Rs 7,000-crore mark during the current financial year, with the plant having sold products worth Rs 2,800 crore during the first five months, said the Commercial Director, Mr Y. Siva Sagara Rao. Interacting with the local press here on Thursday, he said the plant had cut its prices by Rs 1,000 per tonne, like the other major steel plants in the country, to reduce the inflationary pressures and to make more steel available to the domestic industry.

"Because of the policy decision, we have exported only Rs 56 crore worth of products this year, though we have a good export market too. Our sales and performance in the domestic market have been quite satisfactory," he said.

He said he envisaged no further price-cut and it would be smooth run during the rest of the financial year. "Vizag Steel has a great reputation in the market for its quality and cost and we have no problem in selling our products either in the domestic market or abroad," he said. Referring to China, he said, there is not likely to be any great slump in that country's demand for steel till the completion of the Olympics (in Beijing, 2008).

"The Chinese consumption is likely to touch 300 million tonnes (mt) by 2005 and there is not likely to be any downturn in the international markets. Besides, we have our own niche markets," he said.

He said the accumulated losses of the plant had been reduced from Rs 4,900 crore to Rs 2,900 crore during the past two years and they would have to be wiped out altogether. RINL had already become a zero-debt company, he added.

He said phased expansion of the capacity would be undertaken from the present 3.2 mt per annum to 5 mt and later on to 10 mt. On special steels, he said RINL is producing 7,00,000 tonnes of special steel and the production could go up to one mt in future.