SAIL’s Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), Chairman, PK Singh has laid emphasis on giving value addition to its products and tailoring the product quality rather than focusing only on the volume aspect.
He said the DSP’s modern 1MTPA (million tonne per annum) capacity medium structural mill (MSM) is capable of producing world-class structural steel products, having a high demand for various on-going and upcoming infra and construction projects in India.
Singh also said with the Railways replacing its conventional coaches with German technology carriages in the next few years, wheels for new LHB Railway Coaches are in advanced stages of validation at Durgapur plant. The metallurgical testing of the wheels has already been completed.
He said that DSP is a plant designed to produce 7.5 lakh tonnes of semis (type of steel product), where SAIL-DSP in association with Centre for Engineering & Technology (CET) will tap the huge market for special grade semis. The semis would also explore possibilities in transmission line towers (TLT) and forging areas.
At DSP, the mill is producing parallel flange beams, joists, channels and angles, which are primarily used by infrastructure and construction segments. There is an increased demand of these products in the sectors like infrastructure, metro and construction, he said.
While expressing displeasure over tardy progress in critical areas of strategic importance, he said “SAIL must ramp up production from New Rail Mill in Bhilai without wasting any more time, and meet all the requirements of its major customers. Company should chalk-out a time bound action plan to cater to the Indian Railways’ increasing demand. SAIL must take its joint ventures at international level to logical conclusion at the earliest. Company must leverage its position in the industry, instead of not being able to fulfill its commitments and agreements.”
In October, the Minister for Steel Mr.Birendra Singh also directed to the company management to submit quarterly plans and targets, which will be reviewed after every three months. Steel Minister will also be meeting CEOs and EDs of Steel plants next month, to get direct feedback about constraints, bottlenecks and issues of concern.
The CEOs have to understand their direct accountability and responsibility for performance of the Unit under their charge, the Minister added. Mr.Singh emphasised that accidents in the Plants must be curtailed and highest safety standards must be adhered to in all Units. Safety should be a prime focus of all the plant heads and stress should be given on repair and regular maintenance to avoid unforeseen breakdowns, downtime and resulting loss of production. SAIL should focus on ensuring raw material security to avoid the vagaries of coal supplies currently afflicting the company, he added.
Birendra Singh said that SAIL should explore possibilities for developing new markets by adopting new technology and adding value added products to its basket, like non corrosive steel products for construction in coastal areas. SAIL should also focus on product differentiation to create value for the shareholders, thereby creating an exclusive space for the company. Efficiency improvement and product quality improvement at individual plant level should be focused upon to meet the customer requirements and to improve the financial performance of the company.
In the meeting, SAIL’s overall performance as well as that of individual Integrated Steel Plants (ISPs) on critical techno-commercial parameters were reviewed. Chairman/SAIL Mr.P. K. Singh made a presentation on action taken on the recommendations by Group of Experts appointed by Ministry of Steel.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Steel, Vishnu Deo Sai, the Secretary Steel Dr. Aruna Sharma, senior officials from Ministry and SAIL including CEOs of SAIL Steel Plants.