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The Visakhapatnam steel plant - Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited may find the going easier from 2018 onwards, as the market conditions are likely to improve and by then the plant would also have achieved a capacity of more than 7 million tonnes, according to P. Madhusudan, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).
He was speaking in the plant on Sunday after participating in a friendly cricket match with the Vizag Journalists' Forum (VJF) as a part of the foundation day celebrations.
He said the RINL which started its journey in 1982 had seen many ups and downs during the past 35 years. "It was a difficult decade after the plant started operations from 1991-92 and by 1999 it was almost on the verge of being referred to the BIFR. But it made an amazing turnaround by 2003, wiping out the accumulated losses. The expansion project to increase the capacity by 3.3 million tonnes, to the original 3 million tonnes, was taken up at a cost of Rs 12,300 crores. Most of the amount was only through internal accruals and only Rs 3,000 crores was borrowed," he explained.
He said though there was some delay the expansion project was completed by 2015 and now all the units, commissioned as a part of the expansion project, are ramping up their production," he said.
He said by March, 2018, or so the new units would achieve the rated capacities and an additional million tonnes would be added to the capacity, as modernisation of the old units is also being undertaken at a cost of Rs 4,000 crores. "By next March, we will have a capacity of more than 7 million tonnes and hopefully the market conditions will improve by then. For the past two years, the market has been very difficult," he said.
He said the construction of the new capital, Amaravati, by the State Government and the Polavaram project would provide some relief to the steel plant. "The State Government has given us an assurance that to the extent that our products are suitable they will be used. We produce long products and we will be given preference. We will also offer quality products at competitive rates," he added.
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