Calcutta, April 22 :    Calcutta, April 22:  In an effort to increase sales in the domestic market, the Steel Authority of India Limited has worked out a four-pronged strategy. In the current financial year, the public sector steel giant's sales target is 9.47 million tonnes, up 1 million tonne over last fiscal's 8.47 million tonnes. To achieve the target, SAIL has decided to change the product mix as per customer requirement, increase sales of special steels, overhaul the distribution channels and set up additional service centres. The additional service centres will be jointly set up with local dealers and distributors. The first such service centre is coming up at Bokaro with Bansal Mechanical. 'These service centres will supply steel according to the customer's specific requirement. They will give instant service to the customers. All the international steel majors have this type of service centres,' said SAIL officials. Rural markets will be another thrust area for the steel major. 'SAIL appointed IRMA to carry out a study on the demand of steel in the rural sector. Based on their observations, we have decided to enter the rural areas of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan,' the officials said. SAIL will focus on selling flat products as competition has intensified in this category. The large secondary producers have entered the market in a big way. The major market for flat products lies in the western and southern regions of the country, while SAIL's plants are located in the central and eastern belt. The state-owned steel giant's competitors like Essar Steel, Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd, Jisco and Ispat Industries have their factories located in the southern belt, which gives them freight advantages. These private steel majors deploy modern technology which helps them produce steel at a much lower cost. Therefore, the Central Marketing Organisation (CMO) has to match their prices which results in lower realisations. 'In the current financial year, we are looking at oil and natural gas, petrochemicals, automobiles, white goods, LPG storage and boiler sectors to sell our flat products,' SAIL officials said. 'We are also overhauling the entire distribution system so that the marketing cost is arrested,' they further added. Officials feel that if all these measures are followed rigorously then the net sales realisation will increase substantially. In the last financial year, CMO was able to achieve a growth of 6 per cent in its net sales realisation over the previous year. During the last fiscal, SAIL had registered a 25 per cent growth in the eastern belt and expects to maintain the same level of growth in the current financial year.