Kolkata April 4 (IANS) State-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) which is eyeing a 25 per cent growth in saleable steel volume is also expecting to return to profit in the current financial with expanded and modernised steel producing capacity an official said on Wednesday.
The steel maker which clocked a 65 per cent growth in exports during 2017-18 would focus more on the overseas markets in the current fiscal.
"We have made a net profit during March and hope to continue with that momentum this year. In 2017-18 the company clocked a positive ebitda over Rs 200 crore. We are expecting to return to profit in 2018-19 " company s Chairman and Managing Director P. Madhusudan told reporters here.
According to him scaling up of volumes in operations improvement of value added steel products and cost reduction efforts would be key factors to become a profit making steel producer.
The steel maker which has been bringing down its net losses incurred a net loss of about Rs 1 400 crore in 2015-16 and subsequently a net loss of Rs 1 200 in 2016-17.
However the net loss would be to the tune of about Rs 850 crore in 2017-18 he said.
According to provisional data the state-owned steel firm clocked over Rs 16 500 crore of sales turnover during 2017-18 with a 31 per cent growth in saleable steel touching 4.5 million tonnes mark.
"We are targeting a 25 per cent growth in saleable steel production during 2018-19 to 5.7 million tonnes " he said.
The company had spent Rs 12 300 crore for expansions of 6.3 million tonnes per annum capacity and Rs 4000 crore for modernising its plants.
--IANS
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