Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the holding company of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, is aiming at a sales target of 3.5 lakh tonnes of steel in July 2020, sources informed SteelMint.
In June, 2020, the company notched up sales of 2.9 lakh tonnes, of which 1.2 lakh tonnes comprised exports. The steel PSU had actually targeted sales of 2.5 lakh tonnes in the domestic market alone in June, 2020. Thus, it fell a tad short of achieving that target, at 1.7 lakh tonnes. But, going forward, RINL is upbeat that the demand scenario would be better. “The market will look up, so will the MSME and downstream sectors. These units, on their part, are resuming their production lines,” RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director P.K. Rath told SteelMint.
In May, RINL had achieved sales of 3 lakh tonnes, in which the share of exports was 1.5 lakh tonnes.
Production
The steel PSU is looking to restart operation of one of its shut blast furnaces (BFs) in the second week of July, it is learnt. “RINL is planning to start operations of its second blast furnace in the second week of this month (July),” a source informed.
The company, in ordinary times, runs three BFs, each with a rated capacity of 7,500 tonnes of hot metal daily. Consequently, with the relighting of the second BF, the production capacity will start increasing from July. However, the targeted production figure for the current month could not be accessed by SteelMint.
At present, RINL is operating at 33% of its rated capacity, through a single blast furnace.
In June, RINL’s hot metal production was at 1.83 lakh tonnes against 1.67 lakh tonnes in May, 2020.
Inventory & exports
Inventory at the end of June, 2020 was at 5 lakh tonnes, which is an improvement over the 7-7.5 lakh tonnes that the steel major had piled up around mid-April and around 6 lakh tonnes in June.
The company’s inventory liquidation in April and May, 2020 happened mainly through exports. In April, RINL exported 120,000 tonnes and, in May, about 150,000 tonnes of semi-finished products and 25,000 tonnes of pig iron.
In June, 2020, it had set an exports target of 2 lakh tonnes. However, considering the overall market conditions, it was able to sell overseas 1.2 lakh tonnes in the previous month, as already mentioned above.
A source observed that the situation in Ladakh could be a reason for the somewhat mellowed exports scenario in June, adding that one will have to wait and watch how July pans out.
by Madhumita Mookerji
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