Rural markets hold the key to the growth of not only the steel industry but other industries as well. Therefore, steel companies should focus on rural marketing, according to the Union Steel Minister, Beni Prasad Verma. He was addressing a gathering of customers and rural dealers of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (Visakhapatnam steel plant) at Lucknow on Monday, according to a RINL press release issued here.
RINL customer portal
The Minister said the country’s rural markets would be bigger than the markets in some of the developed countries in the next few years. He stressed the role of dealers in ensuring that steel reaches every corner of the country. He also inaugurated RINL’s customer portal for direct e-sales and released “Customer Charter” and gave away awards to the best customers. He distributed dealership certificates to newly-appointed dealers. More than 250 major customers and dealers of the RINL-VSP from different parts of the country participated in the meet.
Appreciating the efforts of the RINL-VSP in increasing the network in rural marketing, the Minister asked the CMD of RINL to further strengthen the distribution/sale of steel in rural areas and to set up service centres.
In his welcome address, CMD A. P. Choudhary said the focus at RINL had been on maximising customer delight, and “RINL’s endeavour has always been to exceed customer expectations by providing the best service possible.”
He said no security deposit was being taken under the scheme and the rural dealers get a margin of around Rs 1,000-1,200 for every tonne of steel sold by them.
He said RINL has appointed 555 rural dealers and the number would cross 1,000 very soon. 101 dealers have been appointed by RINL in Uttar Pradesh which is the highest in the country.
T. K. Chand, Director (Commercial), explained about the e-marketing facilities. He said RINL plans to open a new marketing branch at Allahabad shortly.
RINL also plans to set up outlets at Ambedkar Nagar and Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh.
A stockyard would be set up at Varanasi. RINL has sold about 21 per cent more steel products in UP in 2011-12 compared to the previous year, he said.
In domestic steel market, RINL is the leader in bar and rods and it has 9 per cent of the market in long products.