Durgapur Steel eyes record profit

Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is set to post net profit after more than a decade.

SAIL officials said, DSP is set to record its first net profit in the present millennium. The plant registered net profit once each in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

"The three figure net profit, which the plant is expected to net in 2003-04 will be the highest ever achieved by the plant as yet" said company officials.

DSP closed the year 2003-04 with a rated capacity saleable steel production of 1.61 million tonne of saleable steel, which surpassed the previous best of 1.58 million tonne achieved in the year before.

DSP also recorded the highest ever hot metal production at 1.98 million tonne surpassing the previous best of 1.94 million tonne achieved the year before and similarly the crude steel production at 1.76 million tonne was the best ever surpassing the previous best of 1.71 million tonne.

DSP had decided to the continuous casting route in about a year's time as the job on the bloom caster was already underway, informed the official sources. "The shift from the top pouring route to the continuous casting route will reduce the cost of production by around Rs. 1,000 per tonne" informed a senior DSP official.

The continuous casting plant produced over one million tonne of billets at 130 percent of the rated capacity setting up a growth rate of 3.3 per cent over the previous best figures achieved in the year before.

A wire rod mill was also being planned to improve the product mix and enhance the net sales realisation.