SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said here at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant that he was very much impressed with the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd for its outstanding performance and termed the company “truly a centre of excellence.”
He made the observation on Tuesday on his maiden visit to the steel plant for completing formalities with regard to a loan of Rs 2,650 crores to the plant for its expansion project. He presented a cheque for Rs 500 crore to RINL CMD A.P Choudhary as part disbursement of the loan on the occasion. He said that, “RINL and SBI are experiencing very cordial and favourable business environment for many years and added that both organisations are committed to serving the nation.”
He appreciated the efforts of RINL in expanding the capacity and promised all support from SBI for its financial management. He advised RINL to go in for long-term borrowings to fund its expansion project to strengthen its fiscal position in the competitive economic scenario. “Steel is a cyclical and capital-intensive business and therefore utmost care should be given to financial management,” he said.
While welcoming the dignitary, A.P Choudhary said that RINL, being the only shore-based plant, had great potential to go up to 20 mtpa in a single location, heading towards the Maharatna status soon. “RINL is doing extremely well despite huge raw material cost of around 70 per cent when compared with other steel plants. Even though it lacks captive mines, RINL is earning profits for 11 years,” he said and added that RINL would be investing around Rs 5,000 crore to increase the capacity in the next three to five years. He sought cooperation from SBI.
P. Madhusudan, Director (Finance), in his welcome address said that the company was operating its freight payment transaction of Rs 1200 crore annually, customs duty transaction, and others through SBI only. He thanked the SBI management for the loan.