Steel giant SAIL has appointed new Chief Executive Officers to head its plants at Burnpur, Rourkela and Durgapur.
"RK Rathi has taken charge as CEO, ISP, Burnpur (West Bengal) while Ashwini Kumar and AK Rath have taken charge as CEO of Rourkela (Odisha) and Durgapur (West Bengal) steel plants respectively," Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in a statement today.
M Ravi has been declared as the CEO designate for Bhilai Steel Plant and would take charge with the superannuation of the present incumbent.
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"In the present challenging times for the steel industry, these appointments at the helm would further strengthen SAIL's thrust on ramping up production from new units, aggressive cost reduction and improvement in product mix in these three plants which have recently completed modernisation and expansion program," the statement said.
The Maharatna PSU's modernisation and expansion drive is to enhance its steel production capacity from 12.8 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 21.4 MTPA at an indicative investment of Rs 61,870 crore, Parliament was informed last month.
The programme is being undertaken at SAIL's facilities in Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur and Burnpur as well as the special steel plant at Salem.
Besides the modernisation programme, a provision of Rs 10,264 crore has been made towards investment in mines.
The Chairman said that to overcome the challenges, a
massive communication exercise is being undertaken right from the top and more than 20,000 employees have been covered under it. SAIL is optimistic that it will yield positive results.
In a bid to to boost steel consumption in the country, he said, there is a need to improve the use of steel in proportion with cement -- a key building material.
"In our country, there is one of the lowest steel-cement ratio. That (India's steel-cement ratio, in terms of usage) is only 0.3 whereas in the advanced countries, it is 1 or more than 1 and in some it is 1.5:1."
Crude steel production of SAIL, which was at 14.3 million tonnes (MT) in FY'16, would increase to 21.4 MTPA post expansion in FY'17.
The PSU's saleable steel production, which was at 12.4 MT in 2015-16, would augment to 20.2 MTPA post expansion in 2016-17.
The company's hot metal production, which stood at 15.7 MT in FY'16, would reach 23.5 MT post expansion in FY'17.
