Bokaro: Amidst several opportunities, SAIL may incur few revenue losses during the current fiscal as Indian Railways cuts down its budget by 80 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said HariNand Rai Director Technical Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with an additional charge of CEO Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL).
“SAIL’s annual business with Indian Railways is 8,000 crore rupees and due to virus pandemic Indian railway has curtailed its budget so we hope it will indent less,” added Rai.
Notably, Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) has been producing world-class rails for Indian Railways for more than six decades from its Rail and Structural Mill (RSM) and the new and modern Universal Rail Mill (URM) that has been rolling out the world’s longest 130-meter rail as a single piece. Both RSM and URM supply UTS 90 prime rails in length up to 260 metres to Indian Railways.
Meanwhile, Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) continues to strive to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 lockdown in the global steel industry. Despite the temporary shortfall in production, the team is making good use of the opportunities available to BSL, he said.
Demand for steel seems to be reviving in some way in the global market and BSL is ready to take advantage of this increase in demand for steel in the present time,” he added.
Aiming to increase its domestic as well as global market share BSL is aiming at scaling the steel output to 6 million tonnes in the next three years. At present, the BSL has a production of 4.5 million tonnes which would be augmented further to 6 million tones. For this, a thin slab castor of 1.5 million tonnes capacity can be installed, he said adding “With an estimated investment of Rs 3000 crore BSL will go on massive modernization and expansion program to increase its production.”d.
“SAIL is on move and aims to increase its capacity from 20 MT to 50 MT by 2030 with an estimated investment of Rs One Lakh Crore,” added Rai.
Our vision is to increase its production on time. In view of the improved sentiment and confidence across sectors with special emphasis on major infrastructure projects, we are focused in the direction of commissioning balance modernization facilities at the earliest and ramp up production from already operationalised units to meet the growing steel demand in the coming days, he said.
Amidst facing various challenges on this course BSL registered a sound profit during the past two fiscals. During Q1 and Q2 this year we have exported 80,000 tons of special grade steel to China and Vietnam, he said.
Now, BSL is mulling to erect a 4 MT pellet plant at Bokaro Steel City. Its DPR is ready and talks are on with KIOCL Company for setting up a pellet plant at Bokaro Steel Plant, said Rai.
KIOCL Limited (Formerly known as Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited), a Flagship Company under the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India; has been a pioneer with over four decades of experience in operating Iron Ore Mining, Beneficiation and Iron–Oxide Pelletisation in the Country.
The pallets are made from iron and fines which are further used to make steel in blast furnaces. With the use of the pellet, iron and fine stocked (lying) in the mines will be put to good use and thus the use of iron and lumps will be reduced and productivity will be increased, informed an official.