upbeat mood

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 24: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has recorded a net profit of Rs 55 crore in April-June — its best first-quarter performance till now.

“The mood at RSP is upbeat,” said managing director Sanak Mishra, responsible for the turnaround in the steel plant’s fortunes.

In 2003-04, the plant posted a cash profit of Rs 165 crore and in 1995-96, Rs 38 crore. The turnover also increased to more than Rs 3,800 crore last fiscal, a 20 per cent growth compared with that in 2002-03.

In the first three months of the current fiscal, the plant achieved a record turnover of Rs 820 crore.

A few years ago, the plant was financially weak. The improvement in the last two financial years has come on account of increased employee participation and an innovative human resources intervention programme called ‘Sanskar’.

In 2001-02, RSP achieved a growth of 5 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 4.6 per cent in the production of hot metals, continuous cast slabs and saleable steel, respectively, over the previous year. An 8 per cent growth in despatches of saleable steel was recorded — the highest among all the SAIL steel plants that year.

Enthused by the 2001-02 performance, Mishra set a higher growth of 20 per cent the next fiscal in all major production areas. “The strategy was to maximise the volume of production to bring down the cost, retain market share by improving quality and produce only against firm market orders,” Mishra said.