Express News Service reported that riding over the measures to minimisation of losses, the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is eyeing an operational profit of INR 100 crore in the 2017-18 fiscal year. Mr P Madhusudan CMD of RINL giving an overview of the performance said that the RINL was expecting to come into the operational profit zone this fiscal year.

In the past few years, the RINL has posted a cumulative loss up to INR 1,300 core and the CMD said several remedial measures including advanced technology have helped curb the losses. He said that “Given the performance, the cumulative losses may be decreased to INR 900 crore by the year-end. The RINL registered a loss of INR 217 crore in the 2016-17 fiscal when compared to the `760 crore in the 2015-16 financial year.”

In the last quarter (October 2017 to January 2018), he said, the RINL is steadily posting good production volumes, adding that the sale volume has improved by 26 per cent with the company posting a sales turnover of INR 13,000 crore and fiscal growth of 38 per cent by January this year.

He said that “The finished steel production registered a significant 94 pc growth. We have achieved the best labour productivity in all wings. With the commissioning of 120 MW lean gas-based power plant, the waste energy recovery optimised by 123%.”