SAIL's relentless drive to fast-track its modernisation & expansion plan (MEP), resulted in commissioning of projects worth Rs 5500 crores in 2012-13. The company's capital expenditure during FY13 was Rs. 9731 crore. Under the MEP, cumulative orders worth Rs 58,225 crore were placed and an expenditure of Rs 44,536 crore incurred until April '13. In FY 2012-13, projects which were commissioned included New Sinter Plant no. 3 at RSP, 700 TPD Air Separation Unit-4 Oxygen Plant-II at BSP, Skin Pass Mill at BSL, Raw Material Handling Plant at ISP, Sinter Plant at ISP, Coke oven Battery No.11 at ISP, Burnpur, Coke Dry Cooling Plant at ISP, By-product Plant at ISP, Wire Rod Mill & RHF at ISP. In April 2013 itself, projects worth Rs 2175 crore have already been commissioned.
The audited financial results of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for the year 2012-13 were taken on record by its Board of Directors today. The company recorded Profit before tax (PBT) of Rs. 3241 crore and Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs. 2170 crore for the FY 2012-13. These were respectively 37 % and 39 % lower than the corresponding period last year (CPLY). Even though the gross sales turnover of the company in FY'13 at Rs. 49,350 crore was more or less maintained at previous year level, net profit was down largely due to the lower Net Sales Realization resulting from a subdued market .
The company recorded a PAT of Rs. 446 crore in Q-4 of FY'13 . The sharp decline in NSR of 11% per ton of steel in Q-4 FY'13 adversely affected the profitability of SAIL, with negative impact of Rs 1347 crores on account of this factor alone. Consequently , even though sales volume of the company was marginally higher, the Gross sales turnover at Rs 13,660 crores in Q4FY13 was down 7.6% over CPLY.
Notwithstanding the challenging market conditions in 12-13 arising from demand stagnation, SAIL produced 13.4 million tonnes (MT) of crude steel by operating at 103% of its capacity, marking an improvement of 1% over CPLY. In line with its long term objective of increasing the proportion of value added steel in the overall product basket of SAIL, the production of special steels was scaled up to 5 MT, up by 4% over last FY.
SAIL's effort towards process improvements and the need to conserve resources, resulted in best-ever techno economic performance registered by the company, showing improvement in Blast Furnace productivity, energy consumption and coke rate by 5%, 3% and 1% respectively in 2012-13. The y-o-y growth in the usage of Coal Dust Injection (CDI) technology touched 5%. Power generation by captive and JV power plants of SAIL grew by 4%, reaching the best ever level of 690 MW.
Product innovation remained at the forefront in FY 13 with the company laying special stress on making steel to suit the country's strategic needs. Several unique products were added in the SAIL basket including special soft iron magnetic plates for the prestigious India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), IS 2062 E450 and E 350 HR Coils tailor-made for wagons of Indian Railways, ASTM 537 plates which finds application in pressure vessels, NACE quality plate developed for the petrochemicals industry, ultra high strength HR and CR steel with Mn-B, especially for auto body components and 31 CrV3 grade billets for spanners and hand tools.
Chairman, SAIL Mr. C.S.Verma expressed confidence that depressed market conditions will improve with recent measures to facilitate faster clearance of projects. He further stated "2013-14 is going to be a landmark in SAIL's journey of nation-building, with new production capacities being added after a gap of around 15 years, when we take up our present capacity of 14 million tonnes to 19 million tonnes by the end of this fiscal"
Photo caption:
SAIL Chairman Mr C.S. Verma announcing FY '13 results at the SAIL Corporate Office, Ispat Bhawan, in New Delhi today
