India-based Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) targets to produce 4.1mn mt of hot metal in the financial year 2020-21 (April 2020 to March 2021), according to local media reports. RSP is a subsidiary of state-owned Steel Authority of India.
RSP forecasts to produce 3.9mn mt of crude steel and 3.55mn mt of saleable steel in the FY2021. Although these production targets looks tough, the company aims to work towards attaining this goal. The company has scaled down production due to a nation-wide COVID-19 lockdown in India and a resultant shortage of manpower. This fiscal year will be different because of the economic impact of COVID-19 which may cause a paradigm shift in market conditions.
In February 2020, RSP set a new benchmark as it blast furnace-5 surpassed 15mn mt production figures and the last 1mn mt was produced in just 132 days. In FY2020, RSP achieved all-time high operational performance with a combined production of 3.1mn mt steel.