Maharatna Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has laid highest thrust upon modernisation & expansion projects, including training of project personnel, in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the Ministry of Steel for the year 2011-12. Secretary (Steel) Shri P.K. Misra and SAIL Chairman Mr. C.S. Verma signed the annual MoU at Udyog Bhawan here yesterday. SAIL has also incorporated new key thrust areas, including corporate governance, green supply chain and international alliances in the MoU for FY ’12. It is noteworthy that SAIL’s performance with regard to MoU parameters has received ‘Excellent’ rating since 2002-03.
As per the MoU for FY ’12, SAIL plans to achieve higher saleable steel production than planned for 2010-11 by utilising more than 114% of capacity. The company has maintained its thrust on production of special/value-added steels and also plans to produce higher volumes than planned for the previous year. Gross sales projections are over 4% higher than planned for FY ’11. For modernisation & expansion projects, the weightage on achievement of milestones continues to be 10%, the highest weightage amongst dynamic parameters.
While fixing 1.1% of gross margin as R&D expenditure for 2011-12, SAIL has identified seven key projects in this area and targeted 27 new patents. In relation to corporate governance, which is a mandatory parameter as per DPE guidelines, SAIL has stated in the MoU that it will comply with all the 30 requirements. In the area of sustainability, which is another mandatory parameter, the company has decided upon ‘greening’ of its supply chain by targeting achievement of ISO:14001 certification for some of its warehouses during 2011-12. Other thrust areas identified under sustainability are reduction in specific energy consumption, specific water consumption and particulate matter emission load. In addition, with its focus on becoming a global player, SAIL has decided to sign a number of MoUs with foreign companies and has included this as an MoU parameter. The company will continue its thrust in the areas of customer satisfaction, human resource development, productivity improvement and CSR.