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SAIL chairman C.S Verma (left) with director S.S. Mohanty (centre) and CEO of Bokaro Steel A. Maitra in Bokaro on Sunday. Picture by Pankaj Singh
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Bokaro, Sept. 9: State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) will invest Rs 35,000 crore to set up steel, power and urea plants at Sindri, chairman C.S. Verma said.
Verma, who is optimistic about the growth in steel consumption, said, “At present, the market growth is hardly 2 per cent, but seeing the rising consumption, we have decided to raise the production from 24 million tonnes (mt) to 45mt in 2020, which includes the establishment of a 5.6mt factory at Sindri and an increase in the production of Bokaro Steel Plant from 4.5mt to 17.5mt by 2020.”
The company, which has six thousand acres in Sindri will set up a 1.1mt urea plant and a 1,000 mega watt power facility at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore each. The steel unit will involve a cost of Rs 25,000 crore.
Verma expressed satisfaction over the progress of the ongoing modernisation and expansion of Bokaro Steel Plant.
The company plans to shovel Rs 55,000 crore to raise the plant’s capacity to 17.5mt from 4.5mt in eight years.
The SAIL chairman today announced that all vacant land belonging to Bokaro Steel Plant would be utilised for industrial purpose, which includes the establishment of a new unit in a collaboration with Korean firm Posco, with which SAIL is in the final stage of talks.
“Talks regarding a joint venture in Bokaro between SAIL and Posco are on. We expect a result in this regard very soon,” Verma told reporters.
He said the PSU was trying to import iron ore from Afghanistan, Australia and other countries to support its expansion plan.
On coal blocks, Verma said three of the four blocks allotted to SAIL were operational, while efforts were on to make the fourth one functional.
“We are trying to get more blocks,” he said.
He added that SAIL had evinced interest to take up more work for Indian Railways after providing materials for tracks up to 5 lakh km.
The PSU has reported a sharp fall of 18 per cent in net profit at Rs 696.41 crore during the April-June quarter because of huge foreign exchange losses.
Net profit stood at Rs 848.34 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last financial year.
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