Financial year 2013-14, which also coincided with the fiftieth year of the Bokaro Steel Plant (BSl) of the Steel Authority of India limited (SAIl), proved a watershed year, signalling a long-awaited turn-around in plant operations, said Anutosh Maitra CEO BSl.
The bet on taking up major maintenance activities started paying off, as the losses accrued in the first half of fiscal 2013-14 on account of outsourcing of inputs like coke, sinter and pellets were significantly neutralised during the third quarter. The first two months of the last quarter indicated a steady run for BSl, pointing to positive year-end accounts and a robust momentum of operations. As signs of planned and concerted efforts bearing fruit become visible, this unit of SAIl is upbeat about forging ahead and achieving better capacity utilisation in the days to come, he said.
In fiscal 2013-14, there has been a 3.8 percent growth in production of Cast Slab, 0.5 percent increase in Crude Steel production, 4.9 percent increase in Ingot Rolling, 2.1 percent growth in production of HR Coil, a significant 27.2 percent jump in production of Galvanised Coil and 4.8 percent increase in Saleable Steel production as compared to fiscal 2012-13. There has also been a 10.7 percent increase in production of Special Steel in 2013-14 compared to CPlY. The story has been positive on the despatch front as well, with increase of 7.7 percent in HR Coil despatch, 4.5 percent in HR Plate/Sheet, 3.7 percent in CR Saleable, 27.3 percent in GP/GC and 10.3 percent in despatch of Saleable Steel. Growth to the tune of 18.4 percent was recorded in direct despatches while a 4.2 percent increase was registered on the Export front, Maitra said.
Bokaro Steel developed some new products during the year including EN 10120 P245 and EN10120 P265 (normal and higher strength for export quality gas cylinders), API CT J55 (for drill casing in oil wells), IS 513 CR1 340 & 390 Al K (for precision tube industry) and IS 6240 Gr-I lPG (for normalized cylinders). The team of the Continuous Casting Shop implemented the novel business idea of converting one of the four caster strands to produce slabs of enhanced 225 mm thickness, setting the stage for enhanced productivity, he said.
The efforts and initiatives of the BSl collective received wide acclaim. While several BSl employees bagged the prestigious Vishwakarma Rashtriya Purashkar, BSl also won the CII Productivity Award, Greentech Foundation Award for CSR and Environment Management, CII-EXIM Bank Business Excellence Award, QCFI and INSSAN Awards and other accolades.
Work on the upcoming new 1.2 MT state-of-the art Cold Rolling Mill-3 is nearing completion. Commercial production from this mill is likely to begin in early 2014-15, which will help BSl recapture certain value-added market segments and boost profitability. The commissioning of the mill will also enable BSl to complete the repairs of Cold Rolling Mills-1 and 2, and prepare the ground for further enhancing the share of value added products, he said.
Enthused by the encouraging trends, BSl stands committed to capitalise on the positives and keep the momentum going in 2014-15. Employee Motivation and Back-to-Basics, BSl's mantra for 2013-14, has helped lay the foundation for the impending turnaround, he said.