 "SAIL aims at 1 mn tonnes export next fiscal")
State-owned SAIL, which has been largely catering to domestic market instead of pushing exports, started overseas shipments vigorously since the beginning of the current fiscal to tide over the subdued demand at home and arrest the impact of the rupee's fall against the US dollar.
"This has yielded results with exports clocking nearly 30% growth at 0.475 million tonnes in the current fiscal over last fiscal and, going by the momentum, we hope to achieve 1 million tonnes exports next fiscal (2014-15)," said a company official.
More From This Section
During 2013-14, SAIL's export basket consisted of wire rods, HR coils, CR coils, stainless steel and billets & blooms to around 18 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Canada, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The basket got bigger with the company commencing exports of slabs produced by its Rourkela Steel plant. Plates from the Bhilai plant were also exported directly to project customers in SE Asia for the first time.
The export product mix in 2014-15 will be qualitatively enriched with special quality products coming from the newly commissioned mills at ISCO Steel Plant and Bokaro Steel Plant.
For the cumulative 11-month period of current fiscal, SAIL's concerted effort in increasing domestic sales as well as exports paid off as these grew by 8 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively.
Cumulative sales during the April-February period rose to 10.877 MT, from 10.068 MT in the year-ago period. Exports grew to 0.427 MT, from 0.320 MT a year ago.
"Consistent growth in sales over the last few months has given us the confidence of reporting a better outcome in the coming months, which will further pick-up with the expected strengthening of the market," SAIL Chairman C S Verma had said earlier this month.