SAIL records highest-ever monthly sales and exports of 12.77 lakh tonnes in June

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has achieved the highest ever June month sales during June 2020. The domestic and export sales stood at 12.77 lakh tonnes, which is a jump of more than 18 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

In June 2020, the company has also recorded the highest ever exports for any month. It exported 3.4 lakh tonnes of steel during this period. It also achieved the best ever June dispatches of rails to the Indian Railways in the month.

Incidentally, for the first time in the country, SAIL flagged off the first rake of R-260 grade Vanadium alloyed high strength 260-metre rails to the Indian Railways, capable of delivering higher speed and bearing higher axle load.

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry, in a tweet said, "Make in India Powers Rail Manufacturing: Fulfilling the requirements of higher speed & load on train tracks, Bhilai Steel Plant for the first time delivered R-260 Rails to be used by Indian Railways."

Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan congratulated the SAIL collective for achieving the feat and said, the record June sales and exports by SAIL is indicative of the buoyancy and sharp recovery our economy is witnessing. Mr Pradhan, who re-twitted Mr Goyal's tweet said, "Our steel companies are fully geared to fulfil domestic demand and meet global expectations. Creating more synergies like this will contribute to the making of an #AatmanirbharBharat. #IspatiIrada."

The Chairman of SAIL, Mr Anil Kumar Chaudhary said, India will turn every challenge into an opportunity with IspatiIrada and success story of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Connecting the higher sales with demand recovery after lockdowns, he said, the nation has entered into the Unlock-2 phase and gradually the pace of industrial activities has started picking up.

On the other hand, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has set a national record by clocking 48 blows in a single day in a single converter of Steel Melting Shop-2 (SMS-2) on 2nd July. On the same day, the Steel Plant set another benchmark. It's Hot Metal Torpedo Ladle Number-5 surpassed its previous record of 2,331 lining life.

Despite multi-prolonged challenges in view of COVID-19, Rourkela Steel Plant is leaving no stone unturned to achieve the bar in every facet of performance. The feat is possible because of perfect coordination and tremendous contribution by different departments.