India’s largest steel maker, Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail), said on Thursday that it would expand its production capacity to 18 million tonnes (MT) from the existing 14 MT by the end of this fiscal.
So far, it has spent Rs. 39,000 crore on expansion, out of an annual target of Rs. 72,000 crore.
During the first half of the current financial year, Sail has recorded a growth of 3% in hot metal production.
Its crude and saleable steel productions were up 3% and 2% respectively.
Steel minister Beni Prasad Verma, however, expressed concern over SAIL’s fall in sales and project delays.
He said,“Delays (in modernisation and expansion) are of about one year. I told them to increase the pace of modernisation and achieve targets by the end of this fiscal.”
Sail aims to increase its domestic market share from 18% to 30% by decade-end. It expects its capacity to have gone up to 45 MT by that time.
“This year we will start two new blast furnaces that will take our total hot metal production capacity up to 18 MT,” said CS Verma, chairman, SAIL. The new furnaces at its Rourkela and Burnpur plants would be operational in the next few months.
{{/usCountry}}“This year we will start two new blast furnaces that will take our total hot metal production capacity up to 18 MT,” said CS Verma, chairman, SAIL. The new furnaces at its Rourkela and Burnpur plants would be operational in the next few months.
{{/usCountry}}Sail also plans to commission a new cold rolling mill at its Bokaro plant by fiscal end.