India is expected to become the second largest steel producing nation by 2025. The bad times for the industry are over and things are start improving now, said CS Verma Chairman Steel Authority of India limited (SAIl).
Now India is at the 4th position in steel production and will stand at 2nd position by 2025 with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore in Indian steel industry. For achieving the enhanced capacity, investment of $1billion is expected to be incurred per MT increase in the capacity,
“Government of India has come up with the new Steel policy in which current capacity of 90 MT Hot Metal productions in India is to be ramped up to 300 MT by year 2025. This will result into 210 billion USD (Rs 10 lakh crore) investments in Indian steel industry by 2025”, he added.
On this move, SAIl has prepared a plan to ramp up capacity to 50 MTPA from the current capacity of 24 MTPA. This expansion of 26 MTPA in about 12 years will be financed through internal accruals and market borrowings.
The Government has set up agencies to look into issues of raw materials and logistics with reference to this expansion, which will see an investment of roughly Rs 10,00,000 crores by 2025-26, he said. SAIl will invest approximately Rs 1,70,000 crores into its expansion projects.
As the part of SAIl’s plans, BSl is slated to increase its present Hot Metal capacity to about 14 to 16 MTPA from the present 4.585 MTPA by the year 2025, with an investment of Rs 60,000 crores.
The current projects aim at relatively limited capacity expansion, focussing instead on technological upgradation of the current steel making and rolling facilities. The new cold rolling mill with State-of-the-art technology is expected to be commissioned by March 2014, with the new galvanising line coming by May 2014, he said.
The present Steel Melting Shop-I complex is to be upgraded and provided with continuous casting facility, and the roughing zone of the Hot Strip Mill is to be upgraded. There are plans to install a new Sinter Plant and re-build Coke Oven Battery-7. With the implementation of these projects, BSl would be geared up to realise the expanded hot metal capacity of 5.77 mtpa by leveraging the full potential of the modernised Blast Furnace-2.
Verma said,”Good times are ahead in the global steel market as the world market is getting signals of coming out of depression cycle. A sharp growth was observed during past few months.
“Globally growth in the Crude Steel consumption in 2013 has been 3.2 per cent compared to 0.7 per cent in the year 2012. In India also growth of 5.2 per cent has been registered in Crude Steel consumption in the period of April to December 2013”, he added.
Comparing the situation in India with that of china chairman SAIl said that there is when china with the population of 1.3 billion can upgrade its steel production from 190 MT to 700 MT in a span of 10 years, same can be achieved by India with Government making all efforts to do so.