A DRAMATIC TURNAROUND

VIZAG STEEL IS ON THE BLOCK BUT MAKES A DETERMINED BID TO IMPROVE ITS FINANCIALS IN THE HOPE THAT THE CENTRE RECONSIDERS ITS DECISION AND ACCEDES TO THE WISHES OF ANDHRA’S POLITICIANS AND PEOPLE

- Amarnath K. Menon

Privatisation has been a long-avowed ambition of the Narendra Modi government across two terms, expressed early on in the catchy slogan, ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. That project has produced mixed results, with the government falling embarrassingly short of targets, so much so that it has considerably scaled down its disinvestment ambitions to more achievable, realistic levels this budget. But what if this very threat of privatisation spurs an enterprise to do better, breathing new life into an old argument—of selling the family silver?

This is precisely what seems to have happened with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), or Vizag Steel, as it is popularly known. On the block for privatisation, India’s first shore-based, state-owned steelmaker announced its best-ever performance since its inception in 1982 this April 1. RINL recorded sales of Rs 28,008 crore in the just-concluded financial year, a growth of 56 per cent over the year before. Its profit before tax was Rs 835 crore in FY22, as its chairman and managing director (CMD) Atul Bhatt revealed. The company has produced 5.773 million tonnes of hot metal, 5.272 MT of crude steel and 5.138 MT of saleable steel. It also notched up the best-ever export sales of Rs 5,607 crore, a growth of 37 per cent over the previous financial year. And this, in the face of a raging pandemic, acute shortage of global coking coal and the looming threat of privatisation.