Essar Steel's Hazira expansion by year end

Essar Steel’s $2.5 billion (about Rs 12,500 crore) capacity expansion project at its Hazira plant in Gujarat will be completed by the end of this calendar year.

Following the expansion programme, the steel plant's capacity will go up from the current level of 4.6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 10 mtpa.

“We are on the verge of completion of this project,” company's executive director ( sales and marketing), Vikram Amin, told mediapersons here on Wednesday.

On the other hand, Essar, which entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka government last year for setting up a greenfield steel plant in the southern state, is yet to finalise the details of the proposed project.

According to Amin, the project plans were still at a discussion stage. The company is looking for iron ore mines and the project details will be finalised only after the raw material sources are secured.

Meanwhile, the company is expanding its retail network across the country. It proposes to increase the number of hypermarts to 150 and expressmarts to 500 by the end of this year.

At present, it has 83 hypermarts and 300 expressmarts across the country. While hypermarts are operated by the company, expressmarts are franchisee outlets.

Amin said Essar's retail channel was currently contributing up to 25 per cent to the company's revenues. The company would also be expanding the range of its product portfolio by including TMT bars, structural steel products, channels and beams.

In Andhra Pradesh, he said, the company would increase the number of its hypermarts from five to six and expressmarts from 21 to 35 by this year end.

Essar has about 20 percent share in Andhra Pradesh’s flat steel market and the state accounts for 6 per cent of the company’s total business.