SAIL to invest Rs 1.75 lakh cr on expansion till 2020: Chairman

State-owned SAIL today said it will spend about Rs 1,75,000 crore to augment its annual production capacity to 60 million tonnes by 2020 from the current 14 million tonnes.

"You can say that (there will be) total investment to the tune of Rs 1,75,000 crore, by 2020, including what is ongoing," SAIL Chairman S K Roongta, whose four-year term as the PSU chief comes to an end today, told PTI.

The country's largest steel maker may raise debt to meet 60 per cent of its funding needs to take the capacity to 60 million tonnes by 2020, besides using cash reserves of Rs 22,000 crore.

"It has to be both internal accruals and borrowings. When the projects are firmed up, then we will decide. Even if it is 40 per cent internal and 60 per cent borrowing, it is prudent," Roongta added.

Currently, the steel maker is in the process of expanding its capacity to 23 million tonnes by 2012 at a gross sum of Rs 70,000 crore. "That remains our target (to take the capacity to 60 million tonnes). It is our directional plan and target," he added.
    
Asked if the new leadership at SAIL would maintain the pace of the expansion projects, which has suffered delays at least twice in the recent past, he said, "I hope so. We have to not only defend our market share but also we have to grow it."
    
Besides the ongoing expansion programme, the company is also looking to tie up with steel giants like Posco, ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, in its pursuit for the targeted production capacity.
    
Asked if the mega growth plans are too ambitious for the steel maker, he said, "I don't think so, because demand is growing rapidly and it's not ambitious in this sense that we have infrastructure and our existing plants can be taken into capacities of 47 million tonnes and may be only one major greenfield plant and will be close to 60 million tonnes."
    
Roongta is credited with turning the steel company into what it is today, a Maharatna (cash-rich) entity.
    
"One should be aggressive in pursuit of its business interests and I do not know what way you say I am soft. I am a soft spoken person. Yes, you have to be aggressive, you have to be passionate also. Not only aggressive but I am very passionate also," he said, replying to a query.
    
He spearheaded the recent efforts on part of SAIL to join hands with global giant Posco for setting up steel plant in Jharkhand, besides a mill in Maharashtra, entailing an estimated investment of Rs 15,000 crore.