Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) has earned Profit Before Tax (PBT) of Rs82 Crore in the third quarter of this current financial year (Q3FY18) after ten quarters. This marks an evident step in the turnaround of the Company which continually thwarted challenges and has steadily moved forward towards profitability. Maintaining strong and EBIDTA positive performance for seven consecutive quartersin Q3FY18 alsoSAIL has registered EBITDA of Rs1571Crore, which is a phenomenal jump as against EBITDA of Rs35Croreduring CPLY. Likewise, the EBITDA per tonne of steel for the current quarter at Rs 4162 is significantly higher over CPLY,which was at Rs 107 and even sequentially, it grew more than 50%over the Q2FY18. Steadily intensifying production ramp up from its new mills, SAIL is targeting higher sales volume coupled with more value addedand enriched products. Company's strategic planning on production and marketing front,including newer domestic and potential export destinations,has helped SAIL achieve the strong result and start its journey of returning to profits.
During April-December'17 (9MFY18) SAIL achieved a net turnover of Rs40,091 Crore, which is a growth of 28% over CPLY.Company's total saleable steel sales volume of 3.77 Million Tonnes (MT) in the Q3FY18rose 15% over CPLY and registered 7% growth in 9MFY18 over CPLY.In 9MFY18, the Company achieved highest ever saleable steel production of 10.461 MT. The energy efficient technologies installed under modernization and expansion also helped to improve the techo-economics of the entire production and in Q3FY18 best ever quarterly Coke rate with 4% reduction over CPLY, 17% improved CDI and 3% higher Blast Furnace productivityover CPLY has been achieved. Ramping up production through efficient routes, the Company successfully reduced its manpower cost per tonne of steel by 10% during 9MFY18 over CPLY.
On this occasion, Chairman, SAIL,Shri PK Singh told "The entire SAIL workforce has been dedicatedly working towards improving the Company's performance. The process of turnaround had already started where we continually registered improvement in SAIL's EBITDA through various initiatives taken by management and internalised by SAIL collective. SAIL's third quarter result of FY18 is an amalgamation of higher production, improving efficiencies, focused marketing, cost control initiatives, a massive two way company-wide communication exercise and most importantly a collective effort and active participation of our committed employees to get back to profits." Stressing on SAIL modernization he added, "As we enter into the sixtieth year of production in February, 2018, wehave almost completed our balance modernization projects resulting into further capacity addition. SAIL is focussed on first production to capacity and then production to potential beyond capacity. With stabilization of downstream facilities also converging simultaneously, we are in a position to offer an array of value added products to market which are developed keeping in mind the requirement of various steel intensive sectors."