SAIL India’s R&D champion, spent Rs 284 crore in FY15
25 Sept 2015 7:21 AM IST
Domestic steel giant SAIL has spent Rs 284 crore on research and development (R&D) initiatives in the last fiscal ended March 2015, the highest by any steel maker in India, Steel
Secretary Rakesh Singh said on Thursday.
Singh, who also holds additional charge of SAIL Chairman, said during 2014-15 fiscal, the firm’s capital expenditure stood at Rs 6,840 crore and the current financial year Rs 7,500 crore is
planned as <g data-gr-id="35">capex</g>.
“R&D centre of SAIL continued its pursuit for <g data-gr-id="39">development</g> of niche products and developed 24 new products during the year. In 2014-15, SAIL’s R&D expenditure was 0.56 per cent of sales turnover, the highest among the Indian steel makers,” Singh informed the shareholders at the
company’s AGM.
SAIL clocked a sales turnover of Rs 50,627 crore during 2014-15 and its net profit stood at Rs 2,093 crore. “SAIL’s relentless drive to fast-track its Modernisation and Expansion Plan resulted in <g data-gr-id="43">commissioning</g> of projects worth Rs 10,200 crore in 2014-15, the highest for a year since inception,” Singh noted. During the year, divestment of 5 per cent equity stake in SAIL by the government by way of OFS was successfully concluded. With this, government’s shareholding has come down to 75 per cent, he said.
On production, the company achieved 15.4 million tonnes (mt) of hot metal production in the last fiscal registering 7 per cent growth over 2013-14. Saleable production was 13.5 mt which was 3 per cent higher during the same period, he added.
Several strategic actions were taken to achieve cost control savings in major areas of operation such as optimisation of coal blend, higher yield, higher continuous casting and revenue maximisation, Singh said. As on March 31, 2015, the manpower strength of the firm was 93,353 with <g data-gr-id="48">rationalisation</g> of 4,544 achieved during the year. Post the current modernisation and expansion the labour productivity of the company would improve substantially, he informed the shareholders.
Touching upon the steel industry’s global scenario, he said the world’s finished steel consumption rose marginally in 2014 to 1537 mt, recording 0.6% growth over 2013. China registered a negative steel demand for the first time since 1995 and its exports registered an increase of 51% over 2013. The domestic sector was largely affected by these developments.
Outlining the stress experienced by domestic steel industry due to various reasons, Singh said, “Indian steel prices had to be adjusted in line with international markets resulting in a steep decline in realisations since Aug’14. This has impacted <g data-gr-id="41">performance</g> of the domestic steel producers.” Clarifying that SAIL was also no exception to this, he mentioned, “the Company’s net profit was down largely due to the lower net sales realization resulting from a subdued market in the second half of the last fiscal.”
Mines Ministry set to float tenders for aerial survey
The government will hire a global exploration agency through a competitive bidding process for conducting <g data-gr-id="79">aerial</g> geophysical survey of over 8 lakh <g data-gr-id="80">sq</g> km of potential mining land. The move comes in the backdrop of government’s plans to encourage mines exploration in the country, which has so far not been able to attract private participation on account of lack of policy bottlenecks as well as favourable business opportunities. <g data-gr-id="77">Government</g> has identified more than 8 lakh <g data-gr-id="81">sq</g> <g data-gr-id="82">kms</g> of potential mining land, which requires extensive surveys. The exploration will take around 3-4 years.
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