Rourkela: The state-of-art rolling mill of Adhunik Metaliks, a leading producer of alloy steel in Eastern India, was inaugurated on Saturday by Managing Director of Rourkela Steel Plant BN Singh at its Kuarmunda unit.

According to a company source, the mill will churn out a wide range of rolled products, which earlier had to be outsourced from third party rolling mills.

This is the first of three units to be installed in two phases. The mill will complete a vital link in the entire production value chain.

It will enable the company to graduate from a seller of intermediate products to finished steel.

With the in-house capability to produce high-quality and value-added steel, the unit would now be able to cater to the very discerning and quality conscious auto component and Tier I customers from the automobile, revealed its management.

The company acquired 75 per cent stake in V Cube Forge (India) recently. It produces forgings for the auto and engineering industries and is a natural fit into the company's business model as a forward integration move.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2007, the company reported gross sales of Rs 259.16 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 compared to Rs 195.03 crore in the comparable quarter of 2006-07. Net sales for the quarter grew by 36 per cent to Rs 240.43 crore from Rs 176.38 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The profit before interest, depreciation and tax for the quarter under review increased to Rs 39.59 crore from Rs 32.58 crore, and the net profit rose marginally to Rs 20.58 crore from Rs 20.20 crore.