Steel Authority of India ltd's (SAIl) ambitious capacity expansion plan is likely to be wrapped up by September 2014, with four of its units namely Rourkela, Burnpur, Durgapur and Bokaro steel plants are scheduled to complete their expansion activities by this period. Simultaneously, the expansion plans of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam ltd (RINl) too are likely to be completed by the same time.
According to official sources, once the major augmentation plan is complete, SAIl's annual capacity would go up to 23 million tonnes from the existing 14 million tonnes.
RINl's capacity which is currently 3.3 million tonnes per annum, would scale up to 6.3 million tonnes per annum after its capacity expansion is complete.
SAIl's Bhilai Steel Plant's capacity expansion though is likely to slip into FY16 and may get completed only by September 2015, sources added.
While Bhilai, Rourkela and Burnpur plants are mainly undergoing expansion, the plants at Bokaro and Durgapur are being modernised.
In Rourkela, while the raw material handling plant, cinter plant, coke oven battery and blast furnace are in place, only the convertor and plate mill are to be completed. These are expected to be in order by September this year, sourced informed.
At Integrated Steel Plant at Burnpur, an entirely new unit has been erected by SAIl as the old unit was running on obsolete technology. The original unit's capacity was 0.5 million tonnes per annum, while the new unit which is to be commissioned by September and will start functioning by December 2014 will have a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum.
The Bokaro Steel Plant is undergoing inclusion of value-added units and this is to be wrapped up by June this year. In Durgapur Steel Plant, which is currently only deals in semi-finished products, would graduate to producing finished products once its two main facilities namely - bloom caster and medium structure mill - are completed.
SAIl's Bhilai plant's expansion at the same time may be completed only by FY16 as the contract for setting up a steel melting shop within the plant campus got delayed due to cancellation of the contractor's contract twice. Owing to this, the process is expected to get completed only by September 2015.
At the same time, RINl's expansion plan too is scheduled to end by September this year. Two mills commissioned by RINl are to be completed within six months, whereas apart from two existing blast furnaces, it is expecting one more to be commissioned soon.
Sources pointed out that though SAIl's capacity expansion was originally supposed to be completed by 2011-12 and has got delayed by three years, the reasons behind these were multi-farious and not under the company's control.
At the same time though, SAIl now plans to take its capacity to 50 million tonnes by 2025 and this would entail an investment of Rs 50,000 crore.
For this to happen, the company would first have to wrap up the ongoing enhancement exercise as soon as possible, sources said, pointing out that the expansion plan of Bhilai steel plant needs to be put on the fast track.