SAIL crude steel production in FY'19 at 16.3 MT, up 8 pc

The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) Wednesday said its crude steel output grew by over 8 per cent to 16.3 million tonne (MT) during the financial year ended March 31.

The state-owned steel maker had produced 15.02 MT of crude steel in 2017-18, the company said in a statement.

"The country's largest public sector steel producer has shown much improved performance in 2018-19 in terms of production, techno-economics, sales etc. SAIL produced 16.3 MT crude steel in 2018-19, registering a growth of 8 per cent over CPLY (corresponding period last year)," it said.

The total steel despatch from SAIL was at 14.86 MT during 2018-19.

"2018-19 was a remarkable year for SAIL with marked turnaround in various parameters like production, techno-economics, cost of production, higher production of value added products, apart from ramping up of production from new mills and sales," SAIL Chairman Anil Kumar Chaudhary said.

The company said it produced 9.85 lakh tonne of rails in 2018-19.

"The production of rails got momentum in the second half of 2018-19 with around 5.66 lakh tonne of production and 35 per cent higher than H1 (April-September) figure," it said.

SAIL, which is under the administrative control of Ministry of Steel, is the largest steel-making company in India.