There has been a good growth in physical parameters and the volumes in Q4 also grew by 7-8%. The volume target for FY19 is that of 17-18 million tonnes as compared to FY18 volumes of 14 million tonnes, said PK Singh, Chairman, SAIL.

The volume growth will be added by addition of new capacity, he said.

However, certain logistical problems could marginally drag FY19 volumes.

The EBITDA per tonne target for FY19 is at Rs 8000-10000 per tonne. In Q4, they clocked EBITDA per tonne of Rs 8000/tonne buy that in April and May 2019 was up by Rs 2000 per tonne, said Singh.

There has been good improvement in man power cost to the tune of Rs 700-800 and this could continue going forward.

He said even in the third quarter the company had posted net profit but the Q4 net profit was 10 times that of Q3.

With regards to employee cost, he said two years back it was 22% of the manufacturing cost and they brought it down to 15% as targeted in two years, said Singh.

The aim is to further bring the cost down to 10-11% in next 3-4 years, he added.