SAIL plans 60 mn tonnes production by 2020

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), India’s largest steel maker, will raise its production to 60 million tonnes (MT) by 2020 as part of its plans to become a “global player”, the company chairman said Monday. “SAIL is working on a massive expansion project and has set a target to raise production capacity up to 60 MT by 2020, when the country’s total steel output will reach 180 MT,” C.S. Verma, who recently took over as SAIL chairman, told reporters at Bhilai. He said his priority was to make SAIL a “global player”. SAIL has presently just 19-20 percent share of the country’s total steel production but by 2020, “we plan to have a one-third of India’s total steel output”, he said. Verma also spelt out the company’s plans to increase the share of value-added products in total saleable steel production from the present 37-38 percent to a much higher proportion. Speaking on cost-competitiveness, he said: “Costs of raw material, particularly that of coking coal, constitutes as much as 40-45 percent of total cost of production. It is, therefore, important that the company has firm plans in place for ensuring future raw material security.” SAIL is actively considering procuring coking coal blocks abroad and an action plan is already worked out, he said. Verma said that there was tremendous potential for rolling out new product grades for import substitution in the power, nuclear, defence and space sectors and SAIL can develop and supply required grade of steel for super power plants and nuclear installations that are presently being imported.