KOLKATA: Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), managed to narrow its net loss for the financial year 2016-17 (FY17) by 30% to Rs 2,833 crore, compared to a loss of Rs 4,021 crore in FY16.
The company attributed it to higher production, sales post expansion of capacity and improved productivity during the year. The company’s sales turnover recorded an improvement of around 14% in FY17 and stood at Rs 49,180 crore compared to Rs 43,294 crore over FY16.
SAIL said overall measures to streamline performance helped it remain EBIDTA positive for four consecutive quarters, which stood at Rs 671.6 crore against a negative EBIDTA Rs 2,203 crore in corresponding period last year.
SAIL recorded the best ever sales performance, for any given year, during FY17 with a growth of 8% over FY16The total sales stood at 13.11 million tonne (mt)in FY17 as compared to 12.12 mt in FY16. On the production front as well, the Company recorded a growth of 12% in saleable steel production for FY17 over FY16.
An unprecedented increase in coal prices,both domestic and imported, which led to a Rs 4,300 crore hike in coal bill during FY17, impacted the numbers and stunted the overall margins, SAIL said in a statement late on Tuesday night. It neutralized the improvement in Net Sales Realization (NSR) during FY17 over FY16. To add to it, charges for capitalization of assets on account of interest and depreciation also went up affecting the margins, SSIL said. In FY 17, the company also took a one-time expense on account of VR Scheme which was a part of its long term strategy for manpower rationalisation. SAIL said it managed to register substantial reductions in expenditure on account of manpower by 8% with a total improvement of 2% in the overall cost per tonne during the year.
Commenting on the performance, SAIL chairman P K Singh said: “Despite sharp hike in imported and domestic coal prices, which has also neutralized the NSR gains, we have managed to compress the loss.”
During the year 2017-18, the company has a target to produce more than 15 mt of saleable steel with thrust on value added products from the new modernized facilities like Universal Rail Mill at Bhilai, New Plate Mill at Rourkela, Structural Mills at Burnpur and Durgapur, Cold Rolling Mill at Bokaro and Wire Rod Mill at Burnpur.
