Visakhaptnam, Sept 30 (FN Representative) Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP) ‘s Thursday said that its net loss for the year 2020-21 reduced to Rs 789 crores even as the sales turnover achieved 14 per cent growth during the year. Addressing the shareholders of the Navaratna public sector undertaking at the 39th Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the financial year 2020-21, held here, RINL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Atul Bhatt said that in spite of the impact of COVID-19 during the year, the company achieved a Sales Turnover of Rs 17,980 crores, with a growth of 14 percent over the previous year.
The company has reduced the net loss (PAT) to Rs 789 crores as compared to a net loss (PAT) of Rs 3910 crores in the previous year, he said the inventory of steel could be reduced by 0.290 Mt during the year by increasing the Exports to 1.308 Mt from 0.497 Mt in the previous year. With the gradual unlocking of economic activity in the country, the production was stepped up by reverting to 3 Blast Furnaces operations since November last year, said Atul said. With the commissioning of Coke Oven Battery-5 also in December last year, the production levels attained new highs, he said with improvement in market conditions at the same time, the company achieved Profit after Tax (PAT) since December last yeat. For the year as a whole, the Company could achieve a positive EBITDA of Rs 1,400 crores as against negative EBITDA of Rs1,499 crores in the previous year, he said. The Techno Economic parameters during the year were affected due to curtailed operations. However, the company achieved improvement in 2 major areas of cost, Iron Ore and Coal, he said. The usage of Iron Ore Slimes as a replacement of Iron Ore Fines was increased to 24 percent from 9 in percent the previous year, he said.
The Pulverised Coal Injection was increased to 98.2 Kg/tHM from 97.2 Kg/tHM in the previous year and the sales of High End Value Added steel increased to 24 percent of Domestic Sales during the year from 20 percent in the previous year., the CMD said. He thanked all the Stakeholders, particularly the Ministry of Steel and other Ministries , the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the Suppliers (Domestic and Overseas), Customers, Ancillary Units, Bankers, the People’s Representatives, the District Administration and various other agencies for the confidence and trust bestowed upon the Company and the opportunity given for its continued growth for achieving various milestones and also sought their continuous support in future. Under Secretary to the Ministry of Steel (MoS) Subhash Kumar attended the AGM on behalf of the President of India as authorised nominee through Video Conference. VV Venugopal Rao, Director (Finance) and CFO, Deb Kalyan Mohanty, Director (Commercial) and Director (Personnel) [Addl. Charge], KK Ghosh, Director (Projects), AK Saxena, Director (Operations) and Dr. Sita Sinha, Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee and Board Sub-committee on Nomination and Remuneration attended the AGM. M Jagadeeshwara Rao, Company Secretary convened the meeting.