State-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) on Monday said it had posted 10 per cent growth in sales during January this year at 1.14 million tonnes (MT) up by 10 per cent compared to same month last year.
The cumulative sales growth by SAIL for the April 2013-January 2014 period was 8 per cent, as sales rose to 9.84 MT from 9.09 MT in the corresponding period last year backed by a surge of 47 per cent in its exports. Most products in SAIL basket registered a decent increase in sales but the sale of flat steel grew by a whopping 23.5 per cent. Cumulative sales growth for flat steel in the ten-month period was 10.6 per cent, an official statement said.
The upsurge in sales registered by the company has been a result of concerted efforts made by SAIL towards producing tailor-made steel to meet customer requirement. The plants and units of SAIL kept pace with this aggressive sales strategy, by increasing production of saleable steel by 4 per cent in 2013-14, at 10.74 MT.
SAIL chairman, C.S. Verma said the uptrend in the first month of 2014 is a firm indicator of the times to come. “We are confident of maintaining the momentum in sales growth, which will be supported by production of better and wider range of products like universal beam, wire rods and wider plates from the new state-of-the-art facilities coming up in phases,” he added.
