New Delhi: Union Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh chaired a meeting with Chairperson and Managing Directors (CMD) of steel PSUs on Tuesday to review their marketing strategies and diversification plans and urged them to contribute towards projects of national importance, like Bharatmala, Sagarmala and Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC), among others. The minister reviewed the marketing and sales strategies adopted by steel PSUs, including their roadmaps in the context of future expansion and diversification plans. Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste and Secretary Pradip Kumar Tripathi were also present at the meeting.
At the meeting, steel PSUs apprised the Steel Minister about the marketing strategies in place for the domestic as well as for the export market for their various products. The minister directed the public sector enterprises (PSEs) to have a system in place for real-time assessment of the changes in the demand, supply, pricing trends, degree of competition, etc for various products so that they can arrive at the best suited marketing strategies. He also urged them to go for aggressive marketing of their products.
The Steel Minister stressed on the need for steel PSUs to wholeheartedly contribute to the ongoing and future infrastructure projects of national importance and other important projects like Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Roads Projects, Railways' DFC, dam construction and projects in the energy sector.
Singh advised the companies to lay more emphasis on branding of the products and utilise all available advertising opportunities to popularise their products. He urged the PSUs to interact with dealers, distributors, agents, customers, etc and work towards expanding their reach to the common man in small towns, cities and villages.
At a separate meeting held on September 20, the minister had reviewed status of cost reduction in production of PSUs. The minister had emphasised on the need to carry out macro and micro analysis of the parameters affecting the cost of production and leave no stone unturned to convert adverse conditions into opportunities. Singh had directed that a roadmap for cost reduction through improvement in certain parameters be prepared in the next six months and necessary action be taken.
Steel PSUs had pointed out that coking coal, which is mostly imported, is the biggest element which contributes to cost of production. The minister urged PSUs to focus on important cost-cutting measures, such as reduction in the coke rate, increase PCI injection and increase use of pellets to reduce the consumption of coking coal. It was also directed that these techno-economic parameters be monitored on monthly basis through the Steel Dashboard.
The various parameters affecting the efficiency and productivity of the steel plants — BF Productivity, BF Coke Rate, BF PCI/CDI rate, Labour Productivity, Specific Energy Consumption, CO2 emission intensity, Water Consumption etc — were also reviewed so as to reduce the cost of production, improve energy efficiency, reduce GHG emissions and minimise water consumption.
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