New Delhi: Domestic steel giant SAIL has spent Rs 284 crore on research and development (R&D) initiatives in the last fiscal ended March 2015, the highest by any steel maker in India, Steel Secretary Rakesh Singh said Thursday.


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Singh, who also holds additional charge of SAIL Chairman, said during 2014-15 fiscal, the firm's capital expenditure stood at Rs 6,840 crore and the current financial year Rs 7,500 crore is planned as capex.


"R&D centre of SAIL continued its pursuit for development of niche products and developed 24 new products during the year. In 2014-15, SAIL's R&D expenditure was 0.56 per cent of sales turnover, the highest among the Indian steel makers," Singh informed the shareholders at the company's AGM.


SAIL clocked a sales turnover of Rs 50,627 crore during 2014-15 and its net profit stood at Rs 2,093 crore.


"SAIL's relentless drive to fast-track its Modernisation and Expansion Plan resulted in commissioning of projects worth Rs 10,200 crore in 2014-15, the highest for a year since inception," Singh noted


During the year, divestment of 5 per cent equity stake in SAIL by the government by way of OFS was successfully concluded. With this, government's shareholding has come down to 75 per cent, he said.


On production, the company achieved 15.4 million tonnes (MT) of hot metal production in the last fiscal registering 7 per cent growth over 2013-14. Saleable production was 13.5 MT which was 3 per cent higher during the same period, he added.


Several strategic actions were taken to achieve cost control savings in major areas of operation such as optimisation of coal blend, higher yield, higher continuous casting and revenue maximisation, Singh said.


As on March 31, 2015, the manpower strength of the firm was 93,353 with rationalisation of 4,544 achieved during the year. Post the current modernisation and expansion the labour productivity of the company would improve substantially, he informed the shareholders.