Rastriya Ispat eyes Rs10,000cr turnover

Rastriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the flagship company of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), witnessed a 23 per cent growth in profit before tax (PBT) and an eight per cent growth in its sales turnover during the financial year ended March 31, 2007.

"Our PBT was provisionally put at Rs 2,246 crore during 2006-07, as against Rs 1,820 crore in the previous year, while our turnover touched Rs 9,126 crore as against Rs 8,482 crore in the previous year. This includes the by-product sales of Rs 220 crore. We are targeting to touch Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal," Y Siva Sagar Rao, chairman and managing director of VSP, told mediapersons here on Thursday.

Attributing the record sales to VSP's effective marketing efforts and expansion of marketing channels, Rao said the company had appointed more than 66 dealers across the country last fiscal, besides ramping up its dealer network to about 100.

According to him, VSP, however, witnessed a slight decline in exports during 2006-07. "Our exports plummeted to Rs 435 crore, as against Rs 500 crore during the previous year. This was mainly due to the company shifting focus to the domestic market," Rao said.

In 2006-07, VSP produced 1.09 million tonnes of value-added products, which contributed 32 per cent to the total steel production of the company, as against 0.88 million tonnes in the previous year.

The steel plant is targeting to increase the production of value-added products to 35 per cent this year.

VSP produced 3.61 million tonnes of liquid steel, 3.29 million tonnes of saleable steel and 3.01 million tonnes of finished steel during 2006-07, the best-ever production performance by the company since its inception.

On the company's 6.3-million tonne expansion works, Rao said VSP had spent Rs 690 crore during 2006-07, and would invest Rs 2,500 crore more this year.

"With the Indian steel industry expected to grow strongly in line with the global trends, we are chalking out a corporate plan in a phased manner. As part of this, we will expand our capacity to 6.8 million tonnes in 2008-09, 8.5 million tonnes by 2010-11, 13 million tonnes by 2013-14 and 16 million tonnes by 2017-18," he said, adding that the company requires about Rs 25,000 crore for implementing the plan, entire funds for which would be mobilised through internal resources.

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VSP's pre-tax profit was provisionally put at Rs 2,246 crore during 2006-07, as against Rs 1,820 crore in the previous year

Its turnover touched Rs 9,126 crore, compared with Rs 8,482 crore in the previous year. It is targeting to touch Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal