Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has said that post modernization, production capacity would jump by 60-70 percent, which is a challenge as the domestic steel demand is weak.
The steelmaker has reached the last leg of its Rs 70,000 crore modernisation programme.
P K Singh, SAIL Chairman said that with the modernisation at the Bhilai Steel Plant, which would be over in the next few months, the entire process of modernisation would be complete.
The Bhilai Steel plant is the largest facility of the public sector undertaking.
“We will ramp up our production. Our capacity will jump by 60-70 per cent. That is a real challenge for the company. To ramp up, produce, and sell. That is the biggest issue for the company,” said the chairman.
“Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh recently inaugurated the new Universal Rail Mill (URM) at SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant and flagged off the first rake from the new mill,” he said.
The Rs 1,200-crore URM will take BSP’s total capacity to produce rails at 2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).
Singh explained that SAIL had a growth of 17 per cent in the last calendar year, adding that he expects an output growth of 15-17 per cent this year as well.
He noted that the production is growing by almost 7-8 percent, but demand is growing by 3 per cent. The per capita consumption is at 61 kg, which needs a rapid push.
“This extra production is coming particularly when the demand is not growing. There lies the challenge,” said Singh.
“We are also driving mass scale campaign where we are meeting various ministries, consumers, various users to increase the steel consumption. We are also getting a lot of help from the government,” he said.
