Hoping to turnaround in the current fiscal, Steel Authority of India is likely to witness a hefty 70 per cent reduction in losses mainly due to Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) savings on account of lower interest outgo and intensive cost reduction drive.

"Riding on the strength of a growth of 7 per cent in production and six per cent in sales, we are likely to reduce our losses by more than 70 per cent. Sound financial management helped us bring down our debt by Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion), and outgo on interest payment by Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion), while intensive cost reduction drive entailed a saving of Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion)," SAIL chairman V S Jain said in New Delhi.

Jain said the challenge before the company was to achieve a turnaround in the current fiscal and improve bottomline to make up for the past few years.

He said a 10 per cent increase in production and key efficiency parameters from where we ended last fiscal could translate into Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) improvement in company's bottomline.

Asking the units to gear up, Jain in the latest issue of `SAIL News', said "all we need is to stick to the targets which we have prepared for each unit after due deliberation.