The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) plans to invest a whopping Rs 1.31 lakh crore to expand its production capacity to 45 million tonne per annum (mtpa) by 2020, its Chairman, C S Verma, said.
The state-owned steel maker is in the midst of expanding its crude steel production capacity to 21.40 mtpa from 12.84 mtpa now with Rs 72,000 crore investment. On top of this, it plans to invest Rs 131,000 crore to raise capacity from 21.4 mtpa to 45 mtpa. Verma said the planned expansion was to meet the nation’s rising steel consumption, which was way below the world average.
“We will increase capacity through both greenfield and brownfield expansions. It roughly takes $1 billion investment for 1 million tonne steel capacity addition,” Verma said.
SAIL, which operates five integrated steel plants, plans to expand capacity at four of them, leaving IISCO Steel plant at Burnpur out of the expansion purview.
Published 09 July 2012, 15:26 IST