Jamshedpur, April 1: Ushering into new financial Year (FY) 2017-18 Tata Steel managing director T V Narendran today said that the company is hopeful that the steel consumption will grow by 5 to 6 per cent in FY 18 and will help company to grow further.
He said that the Union Government is spending on infrastructure like roads, bridges and rural electrification and this will help to increase steel consumption.
“We are confident that domestic consumption will go up in 2017 with government’s renewed focus on infrastructure. India is the focus of steel market. Its real impact would be visible only in near future,” noted Narendran.
Addressing a press meet at Centre for Excellence, the managing director said the company is focused on increasing productivity this financial year. The company will continue to take productivity to new levels.
“Over the years, employee productivity has increased from 400 to 500 tonnes of crude steel to 700 tonnes of crude steel per full time employee (FTE), we want to continue improving with better performance,” noted Narendran.
When questioned about expansion plans for the Jamshedpur plant, Narendran said that the company has got environmental clearance of for expansion of the plant. The company has 10.5 million tonnes of capacity of Hot Metal production in Jamshedpur plant, which is being further enhanced to 11.5 million tonnes.
Sharing results of FY 17, a company official said Furnaces achieved best-ever Hot Metal FY17 production of 10.83 million tonnes (Previous best 10.66 million tonnes in FY16).
Blast Furnaces achieved lowest best-ever coke rate of 360 Kg/thm in FY17 (Previous best 380 Kg/thm in FY16), highest best-ever coal rate of 181 Kg/thm in FY17 (Previous best 168 Kg/thm in FY16), & best-ever fuel rate of 542 Kg/thm in FY17 (Previous best 548 Kg/thm in FY16). Sinter Plant achieved best-ever 8.1 million tonnes of Net Sinter production in FY17 (Previous best 7.86 million tonnes in FY16).
Cold Rolling Mill achieved best-ever 1.834 million tonnes production in FY17 (Previous best 1.831 million tonnes in FY15). New Bar Mill achieved best-ever 1.03 million tonnes production in FY17 (Previous best 0.95 million tonnes in FY16), officials said.