A veteran on steel industry, who has been appointed by the Centre to recommend steps to put Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) back on the profit path, is confident of bright days ahead for the Visakhapatnam-headquartered public sector unit.
In an exclusive chat with The Hindu over phone, B.K. Singh, who has experience of over four decades in the industry, said RINL, the corporate entity of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, would not only ramp up production from the new units taken up under the 6.3 million tonne expansion project but also achieve full capacity of production from July-August onwards.
To a specific query, Mr. Singh, who had served as managing director of Bhilai and Bokaro steel plants of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and CEO of JSW Ispat Steel Plant, said RINL, which incurred losses for two successive years, would earn profits from 2017-18.
Union Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh had set up a committee led by Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Aruna Sharma, to find out a revival plan for RINL and SAIL. Both the PSUs are in losses due to a variety of factors. While Mr. Singh is adviser for RINL, former CMD of RINL B.N. Singh and former deputy managing director of Tata Steel Tridiben Mukherjee are advisers for SAIL.
Besides marking strategy, capacity utilisation, improvement of techno-economic parameters, the advisers will also recommend strategies for cost reduction.
Steel grading
The Steel Minister, during his recent visit to the city, had hinted at taking a slew of initiatives, including making consumption of domestic steel mandatory for all government tenders and grading of steel based on quality.
RINL had incurred a net loss of ₹1,421 crore in 2015-16. During 2016-17, the loss was estimated to be ₹1,100 crore. The company, after incurring a net loss of ₹75 crore in 2001-02, had achieved a turnaround in 2002-03 by posting a net profit of ₹521 crore. In the present spell, before incurring a net loss, the company earned a net profit of ₹62 crore during 2014-15.
The turnover went up by 4% by clocking ₹12,781 crore in 2016-17 from ₹12,281 crore in 2015-16. Mr. Singh, who visited RINL sometime ago, had already submitted a report to the Ministry.
RINL, at present, is increasing the capacity further by one million with an investment of ₹4,000 crore to improve performance of blast furnace and other critical facilities.
