SAIL chairman stresses on meeting 2-third ferro alloy requirement in-house

Anil Chaudhary said SAIL is committed to meeting the steel ministry's target of increasing production to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31

Stressing on achieving self-reliance for input material, SAIL chairman Anil Chaudhary said Saturday the company should meet two-third ferro alloy requirement in-house for better cost efficiency.

"It is time for us to not just concentrate on increasing production capacity but also to become self-reliant in terms of input material as well," said Chaudhary, during his visit to the state-run steel maker SAIL's Chandrapur Ferro Alloy Plant in Maharashtra.

"Chandrapur Ferro Alloy Plant (CFP) which meets about 40 of SAIL's Manganese ore based ferro-alloy requirement must raise the production to the rated capacity, so as to enable SAIL to meet two-third of its total ferro-alloy requirement. This will not just be a strategic advantage for SAIL but will also lead to better cost efficiency, he was quoted as said in a statement.

Chaudhary also said that each unit is important in reaching the set targets of production.

Elaborating further, he said SAIL is committed to the Ministry of Steel's target of increasing steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 and in the process, it will augment production capacity to 50 million tonnes.

Chaudhary said CFP must tighten its belt start preparing now because this will warrant an increased requirement of ferro alloys and the unit must be able to undertake such an increased requirement in the future.

He further said "the more self-reliant we are in terms of inputs and raw materials, the more will we be able to assert our presence in the market".

CFP is the India's largest and the only public sector company producing ferro-alloy in the country with an installed high carbon ferro manganese installed capacity of 1,90,000 tonnes per year or silico manganese installed capacity of 1,30,000 tonnes per year.

CFP manufactures three kinds of ferro alloy products comprising high carbon ferro manganese, silico manganese and medium carbon ferro manganese. CFP, erstwhile Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Ltd (MEL), was amalgamated into SAIL in July, 2011. Since, then it has been playing a pivotal role in meeting the internal requirements of ferro alloys in the company.

Chaudhary's CFP visit comes as a part of his structured visits to all the plants and units of SAIL to make a direct connect with the employees.

During his visit, Chaudhary met with a cross section of employees and employee unions. He also visited the raw material and product handling yard, two submerged arc furnaces (SAF) of 33 MVA and 1 SAF of 45 MVA capacity as well as other facilities in the unit.