Jul 15 2004
Steel Authority of India (SAIL) notched up the highest ever sales of finished steel during the first quarter of the year, riding on strong demand in the domestic market.
Between April-June ’04, Sail registered sales of 1.7m tonnes of finished steel, a growth of 9% over the corresponding period last year.
The company had sold 1.5m tonnes of steel in the same period last year. In addition to buoyant demand conditions, Sail’s focus on improving its product mix caused its sales figures to rise.
Despite a severe coal shortage that led to lower hot metal outputs during the first quarter, Sail decided to maintain its production of finished steel at last year’s Q1 level of 1.9m tonnes.
To cater to the demands of the domestic market in April-June, Sail decided to cut down its exports by 66% over the same period last year.
Project sales, which include the supply of steel to major ongoing projects in the country saw a 171% jump in April-June this year, over the first quarter of last year. In terms of volume, Sail’s supply of steel to various projects across the country amounted to 2.8 lakh tonnes.
Most of these projects are in the power sector, including 11 thermal/hydroelectric projects for NTPC and NHPC, besides five atomic power projects. These include thermal projects such as Vindhyachal-III in Madhya Pradesh, Unchahar in Uttar Pradesh, Kahalgaon, Bihar and Sipat in Chhattisgarh, totalling over 5,000 MW.
The hydroelectric projects are Koldam, Chamera and Parbati in Himachal Pradesh, Teesta in Sikkim and Sewa in J&K and Omkareshwar in MP, Teesta Lower Dam and Purulia Pump Storage in West Bengal and Subansiri in Arunachal, coming to a total of 8,800 MW.
Sail is also supplying steel to atomic projects such as Kudankulam and Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, Kaiga in Karnataka and Tarapore in Maharashtra, slated to produce 4,460 MW of power.
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