Mumbai, Sept. 3: Essar Steel’s 1.2-million tonne cold rolling complex went on stream and with this the company became a fully integrated steel manufacturer.

The cold rolling mill at the company’s Hazira steel plant in Gujarat was inaugurated on Friday by chief minister Narendra Modi.

Set up at an investment of Rs 1000 crore, the complex also enables the company to offer downstream products with considerable value enhancement. “The complex is a significant milestone for the group and it will offer a wide range of value-added, downstream products for both the domestic and international markets,” said Shashi Ruia, chairman, Essar group.

The manufacturing facility consists of two pickling lines having a total capacity of 1.4 million tonnes, two cold rolling mills ? a reversing mill and a tandem cold mill ? with a total capacity of 1.2 million tonnes and two galvanising lines with 0.5-million tonne capacity.

According to the company, the investment will give it significant upstream and downstream advantages and enable it to customise its products to suit a range of applications.