Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), in the first quarter of FY 17 (Apr-Jun’16), recorded positive EBIDTA after 3 quarters with a growth of 9.3 % over CPLY. The company also registered highest ever Q1 saleable steel production at 3.436 MT with an improvement of 11% over CPLY. At the same time, owing to several cost reduction initiatives by the Management and ramping up of production from the new efficient mills coupled with rationalization of production from inefficient routes, there was a 10% reduction in company’s variable cost in Q1 FY’17 over CPLY. The company witnessed a 4% growth in overall sales for Q1 FY’17 over CPLY,mainly contributed by long products which witnessed an 8% growth over CPLY.However, SAIL’s gross turnover at Rs. 10,180 Crores was lower by 3.4% as compared to CPLY on account of a 5% dip in Net Sales Realisation. The loss after tax for Q1 FY’17 was Rs 536 Crore as against a loss of Rs 248 Crore in CPLY in spite of a higher EBIDTA primarily due to higher interest and depreciation charges on account of capitalization of new assets. In the first quarter of the current financial, better techno-economics (TEs) were achieved; a 2% improvement in Coke Rate to 477kg/thm as against 489kg/thm, 8% and 4% growth in Blast Furnace (BF) productivity and Concast Production respectively were recorded. .
During Q1 FY’17, SAIL has spent more than 25% of its total planned capital expenditure for the current financial year. All major facilities under Modernization & Expansion Plan of the company’s steel plants at Rourkela, IISCO, Durgapur, Bokaro and Salem have been completed and are under operation/stabilization. Hot trials in Bhilai’s upcoming Universal Rail Mill has commenced and the balance modernization of Bhilai Steel Plant would be completed in next few months which would improve SAIL’s production capacity to around 20 MT of saleable steel.
In the present market conditions, the company is following a strategy of concentrating on Customer, Competition and Change to attain its targets. Speaking on the occasion, Chairman, SAIL, Shri. PK Singh said, “We believe that on the back of a strong monsoon and Government’s plans to invest massively in infrastructure such as roads, railways, highways, ports would result in increased steel demand in the second half of the current financial year. At this juncture SAIL, through its increased production volumes, enriched product mix and customer centric processes would be fully geared up to meet the requirement of the market.”