In its efforts towards product diversification, ASP is now giving thrust to increase production of wheel steel substantially in the remaining months of the current fiscal. This was stated by a press release issued by this special steels plant in West Bengal.

The release said the response from both the Durgapur Steel Plant and the Indian Railways' Bangalore-based Wheel & Axle Plant (WAP) towards wheel steel "is very encouraging".

WAP, one of the major traditional customers of ASP, is fully satisfied with ASP's wheel steel quality and they have exported axles made out of Alloy Steels Plant`s steel to the US.

DSP has been offloading more orders of wheel steel to ASP and demandfrom them is on the increase.

Apart from product diversification, ASP is now stressing on reducing manpower. It has already reduced its manpower by 650 through a voluntary retirement scheme and has plans to further trim the organisation in near future, the release said.

Alloy Steels Plant has also kept its production restricted strictly as per firm orders. Significant results have been obtained towards reduction in cost and improvement in quality of products.

Reduction of inventory, improving the yield and techno-economic parameters, marketing of new grades of steel such as low nickel stainless steel, bullet proof steel, ball bearing steel, wire rod, rolled through Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) and transfer of cast billets from DSP are some of the major components of Alloy Steels Plant's strategy to increase the gross margin in 1998-99, the release said.