Steel Authority of India Ltd has slashed its debt by about Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) during 2003-04 to Rs 8,500 crore (Rs 85 billion), helping the company to record the highest-ever profit during the first nine months of the fiscal.

The state-owned company produced an all-time high of 11 million tonne (MT) of saleable steel and sold a record 10.8 MT in domestic and overseas markets, a growth of 6 per cent and 7 per cent over last year.

SAIL also reduced the total interest charges by about Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) over the previous fiscal. The energy consumption was also brought down by 1 per cent to its lowest-ever level, which pared the cost of production of saleable steel by over 4 per cent in 2003-04.

"The impressive performance was the result of intensive efforts made by the company over the last few years to improve operations, reduce cost and strengthen financials and was supported by the resurgence of the global steel market," SAIL said in a statement.

During 2003-04, SAIL sold an additional 500,000 tonne in the domestic market, while its exports at 1.16 MT was 36 per cent higher over last year.

The company had curtailed its exports during the latter part of the year to make more steel available in the domestic market and stabilise prices in the country.

SAIL achieved its highest-ever production of 12.9 million tonne of hot metal and 12.1 MT of crude steel, an increase of 6 per cent and 7 per cent.

The four main integrated steel plants together produced 12.8 MT of hot metal, 11.8 MT of crude steel and 10.7 MT of saleable steel during the year with average capacity utilisation of 105 per cent.