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The total production of finished steel during the current financial year upto January 2005 has been provisionally estimated to be about 316.50 lakh tones as against the production of 304.86 lakh tones during the same period last year showing an increase of 3.8 per cent . The current consumption of finished steel during April 2004 to January 2005 was 280.00 lakh tones, which is higher by 6.2 per cent as compared to 263.65 lakh tones for the corresponding period last year. The total production of pig iron during the current financial year upto January 2005 has been estimated to be 23.85 lakh tones as against the production of 32.87 lakh tones during the same period last year.
The export of steel during the period has been estimated to be 30.75 lakh tones showing a decrease of 26.24 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year. The decrease in exports is indicative of the rise in domestic demand.
During the month of January 2005, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) achieved a production of 1259,1179 and 1052 thousand tones of hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel respectively representing 97 per cent , 100 per cent and 100 per cent of respective targets. After a gap of seven years, SAIL declared their highest ever interim dividend, of 15 per cent with a payment of Rs.531.70 crore to Government of India. During the month of January 2005, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) produced 3.60 lakh tones of hot metal, 3.12 lakhs of liquid steel and 2.90 lakh tones of saleable steel representing 106 per cent, 114 per cent and 110 per cent of the monthly targets respectively. The plant registered a total sales of Rs. 780 crores, which is the best January sales performance since inception and marks overall growth of 23 per cent over January 2004. Among the mining PSUs of Ministry of Steel, the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited produced 3.75 lakh tones of concentrates and 3.30 lakh tones of pellets. Manganese Ore India Limited produced 78,298 tonnes of manganese ore against of target of 72,030 tonnes reflecting an achievement of 108.7 per cent . National Mineral Development Corporation produced 21.03 lakh tones of iron ore and 7036 carets of diamonds during the month of January 2004. Both the diamond and iron ore production exceeded the target by 12 per cent and 6 per cent respectively.
BJ/PM
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