India's largest steel maker SAIL on Thursday said its domestic saleable steel sales rose 8.5 per cent to cross the 1 million tonnes (mt) mark in July. "Despite onset of lean season on account of monsoon, company's domestic sales crossed 1 mt of saleable steel which is an increase of 8.5 per cent over the same month last year," the state-run company said in a statement.
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) said it has witnessed a good start to the second quarter of 2016-17 fiscal by achieving 15 per cent growth in its total sales including exports for the month of July compared to the same period last year.
Attributing the growth to strengthening its customer centric processes, SAIL Chairman P K Singh said: "We are striving to produce higher Net Sales Realisation (NSR) products through ramping up our new facilities and completing the balance modernisation projects." At the same time, the firm is exploring new markets, both domestic and overseas, he added. "The company continues to focus on cost reduction initiatives and we hope to serve the market better with our enriched product basket," Singh said.
On the production front, July witnessed a 16 per cent growth in saleable steel production at 1.16 mt against the year-ago period. Techno-economic parameters also registered an improvement over July 2015 with 11 per cent improvement in BF (blast furnace) productivity and 4 per cent in coke rate. The ramping up of new mills contributed to the enhanced production resulting in higher sales through supply of improved products to the market, SAIL said.
1,038 employees take vrs offer
India's largest steelmaker SAIL on Thursday said 1,038 employees took its Voluntary retirement Scheme (VRS), which will have a one-time financial impact of Rs 213 crore on the firm. In line with the consistent efforts for enhancing productivity, improving manpower profile, rationalisation of manpower and optimisation of manpower cost, the company implemented the VRS during the period from May 1-June 30, 2016 at all its plants/units, it said in a BSE filing.
"Voluntary retirement of total 1,038 number of employees has been approved under this scheme. The one time financial implication for the scheme works out to Rs 213 crore (VR Compensation), with envisaged savings of Rs 103.80 crore per annum," it added. The state-run company has around 86,000 employees across its 10 plants spread across the country. The Maharatna company has been trying to bring down its operational costs in a bid to cut losses amidst tough domestic market conditions due to cheap imports that are adversely impacting the margins of domestic steel producers.