Minister presents PM’s Trophy for Excellence in Performance of Integrated Steel Plants

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The 25th Prime Minister’s Trophy and Steel Minister’s trophy along with other awards for the best performing integrated steel plants for the year 2016-17 were presented in New Delhi on March 1, 2019.These awards recognise the excellence in performance by Integrated Steel Plants in the country. Union Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh gave away the awards to the winners.

Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur Works, bagged the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the Best Overall Performance along with a cash prize of Rs 2 crore. Tata Steel was able to set new benchmarks in productivity, techno economics, innovation and R&D in 2016-17 for the domestic steel industry and its performance is close to international benchmarks in some select areas. The plant was also able to record best financial performance amongst all plants due to high efficiency, number of IPRs and product development.

The Steel Minister’s Trophy along with a cash prize of Rs 1 crore was bagged by JSW Steel Limited – Vijayanagar Works for 2nd Best Overall Performance amongst other participating Plants. JSW-Vijayanagar has demonstrated resilience amidst vagaries of demand and input costs by bouncing back in 2016-17 posting healthy gross margin of over 21%. Besides strong performance on techno-economic front, the plant demonstrated its strong commitment towards sustainable development.

JSW Steel Limited -Dolvi Works, was given Certificate of Appreciation for Maximum Incremental Improvement for Best Improvement in overall performance along with a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh. Steel Authority of India Limited’s Rourkela Steel Plant won Certificate of Appreciation – Theme Based Award for “Initiative to reduce Turnaround Time” of BOBS Wagons leading to substantial reduction in Demurrage and Optimum Utilisation of National Assets along with Jindal Steel & Power Limited, Raigarh Works, which also won Certificate of Appreciation – Theme Based Award for “Implementing Structural Changes in its Organisational Structure by transforming itself into a Process Based Organization.”

Congratulating the winners of the Awards, Chaudhary Birender Singh said that the recognition in the form of Trophy will further motivate the workforce of winning Plants in their pursuit of excellence and will also inspire other plants to excel in future. He also added that the Indian Steel Industry has overcome several challenges in the past few years.

The country has gone on to become the second largest producer of steel in the world. Speaking on the growth of the country in coming years, the Minister informed that an ambitious target of 300 million tonne of crude steel capacity by 2030-31 has been set. To ensure safe working conditions in our steel industry, we will be soon operationalising a Safety Directorate in the Steel Ministry, the Minister said, according to a PIB release.