--Pioneered in introducing of e-payments
--2014 will be the most happening year in the history of RINL

Sri P Madhusudan, Director (Finance) assumed charge as the 9th Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant today. Sri Madhusudan joined RINL as Director (Finance) in 2009 and played a significant role in financial performance of the Company and pioneered in introducing of e-payments to the customers/suppliers which was widely acknowledged in the entire Indian Steel Industry. Sri Madhusudan will be at the helm of affairs at RINL for the next five years, as the Company is planning to expand the capacity to reach to 11-12 mtpa and aspiring to become a “Maharatna” Company soon.

While addressing a gathering of senior officers in Ukkunagaram today on the occasion of New Year, Sri Madhusudan termed 2014 will be the most happening year in the history of RINL and observed that the expansion and modernization of the units, the commissioning of Finishing Mills & the early stabilization; ramping up of production (beyond rated capacity) from the new Blast Furnace & Steel Making Shop; timely completion of Category-1 capital repairs of BF-1 & its stabilization; modernization of SMS-1; preparing BF-2 for Category-1 capital repairs; timely order placement for modernization of Sinter Plant-1; order placement of Coke Oven Battery-5; augmentation of power generation to meet the enhanced requirements, etc. are some of the major challenges and expressed confidence that RINL collective has potential to deliver.

The new CMD visualized a very bright future for the plant and said utmost priority shall be given for adopting cost control measures across the plant. He said that with the slowdown in economy, there is a tremendous squeeze on the margins of RINL, and he called upon all the HODs to sensitize the “cost culture” across the organization to improve the bottom-line. Generation of adequate surpluses has become mandatory to fund the modernization of equipments and unless concrete measures are taken, the progress of our growth is likely to get hampered, he observed.

He stressed the need to device methods to work collectively and weed out processes that extract most of our production time. The collective working should be supplemented with an intellectual and emotional commitment that ensures consistency, constancy, growth and opportunity to exhibit our untapped potential, said Sri Madhusudan.

Sri Madhusudan, a top class Chartered Accountant in profession, played an effective treasury management including obtaining low cost funds to RINL both in working capital as well as long-term funds required for capital expenditure during the expansion of the Navratna Company. He was very instrumental in hedging the FOREX risks and ensured minimum impact of rupee/dollar fluctuations.

Sri Umesh Chandra, Director (Operations), Sri TK Chand, Director (Commercial), Sri YR Reddy, Director (Personnel), Sri PC Mohapatra, Director (Projects), Sri B Siddhartha Kumar, IFS, CVO highlighted the achievements in their respective areas on the occasion and stressed the importance of achieving, sustaining the rated capacity and stabilization of production from the new units.

Executive Directors, General Managers, Senior officers, SEA representatives Sri Madhavrao, Sri Srinivas, union leaders Sri D Adinarayan, Sri N Rama Rao, Sri Mantri Rajsekhar, SC&ST representatives Sri Deenamanasu, Sri Appalaraju, representatives of WIPS attended the meeting.