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SAIL planning to double steelmaking capacity to 50 million tonne by 2025 |
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KOLKATA: Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is finalizing a plan to nearly double steelmaking capacity to 50 million tonne (mt) by 2025 at an investment of Rs 1,50,000 crore. In step with a planned hike in capacity, the company said it has secured a 30-year mining lease from union mines ministry for iron ore at Dhul khera village, in Rajasthan's Bhilwara district.
"SAIL is finalizing its Vision 2025 document, which will steer the company to increase its production capacity of hot metal to 50 million tonne, along with related and enabling business activities. Implementing the Vision 2025 would entail an investment of about Rs 1,50,000 crore in addition to the investment made in the current phase of expansion," the company's chairman C S Verma informed shareholders at its 42nd annual general meeting on Tuesday.
Outlining the company's growth strategy he said the government's focus on manufacturing and infrastructure through development of smart cities, ports, power plants, industrial corridors and revival of Special Economic Zones ( SEZ) augurs well for a substantial boost in steel demand in the near future.
SAIL is in the final stages of its current expansion plan to raise hot metal capacity to 23 mt by investing Rs 70,000 crore and has already spent Rs 55,444 crore till August 2014 on it.
On a cumulative basis, SAIL has placed orders worth Rs 62,778 crore under its ongoing modernisation & expansion plan. The company said it has been making an average expenditure of more than Rs 10,000 crore each year for the past five years and it plans to make a capital expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore on modernization and expansion during 2014-15.
Alongwith higher steel capacity, SAIL is also scouting for new iron ore deposits to improve its raw material security. The recent acquisition of Rio Tinto's coal assets in Mozambique through International Coal Ventures, in which SAIL has a 28% stake, will provide the company's coking coal security with supplies staring from this financial year, Mr Verma informed shareholders.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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