Visakhapatnam: Steel industry shows signs of improvement

Visakhapatnam: RINL CMD P K Rath said on Wednesday that the steel Industry is showing signs of improvement in the country with the introduction of government's new initiatives in boosting the spending on infrastructure, construction and auto sector.

Exchanging New Year greetings with employees, Rath mentioned that many steel companies in the world were under severe stress last year and the rise in raw material prices like coking coal and iron ore severely impacted the steel industry. RINL is also no exception to this development, he added.

RINL has taken several new initiatives to face new challenges and even with lower production, achieved improvement in techno-economic parameters, Rath said. Further, he stressed on improving Pulverised Coal Injection (PCI) to around 150 kg/ton hot metal in fourth quarter to reduce the cost of production and improve the BF productivity.

On the marketing front, Rath said that RINL achieved a turnover of Rs 12,700 crore during April-December 2019 despite turbulent market scenario. The exports achieved a growth of 119% and the sale of value-added steel has also seen a growth of 79%. The inventory level was brought down to below four lakh tons by December end, the CMD informed.

Further, Rath stated that on the raw material securitisation, RINL has started participating in e-auctions, tender route and procurement of slimes to supplement iron ore fines in Sinter Plant. Actions were also initiated for tying-up with Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) Limited, he said.

Later, Rath released New Year calendar and 2020 diary were brought out by the Corporate Communications Department.

Earlier, the Corporate Strategic Management Department gave a presentation on highlighting the achievements and the focus areas for the New Year.

Director (Personnel) K C Das, Director (Finance) V V Venugopal Rao, Director (Commercial) D K Mohanty and Director (Projects) K K Ghosh, among others were present.