SAIL to scale down investment by 22% to Rs 9K cr

The money will used for modernisation at 5 integrated plants during the next fiscal

State-owned steel maker SAIL plans to scale down investment by nearly 22% to Rs 9,000 crore on expansion and modernisation at 5 integrated plants during the next fiscal.

Highest outlay of Rs 2,960 crore has been proposed for the Bhiali plant, followed by Rs 1,790 crore for the Rourkela plant. It also plans to invest Rs 1,244 crore in Burnpur unit, Rs 642 crore in Bokaro unit and Rs 588 crore in Durgapur facility.

The remaining Rs 1,766 crore has been planned to be spent on various schemes such as installation of slab casters, coke oven batteries, oxygen plants and others in various plants, as per the documents of the Interim Budget 2014-15.

In 2013-14, SAIL is expected to spend Rs 11,500 crore, up 18.17 per cent over actual investment of Rs 9,731 crore made in the previous fiscal. The company had budgeted Rs 13,000 crore total investment for the current fiscal ending March 31.

SAIL is investing Rs 72,000 crore to enhance capacity by around 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 24 MTPA. The ongoing expansion is likely to be completed next fiscal.

The other state-owned steel maker Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) has a higher investment plan for 2014-15 at Rs 1,724.17 crore as compared to the revised estimate to Rs 1,548.72 crore in the current fiscal. Details of investments were not given.

Iron ore producer NMDC plans to spend Rs 4,345 crore next fiscal which is nearly 60 per cent higher than the estimated investment of Rs 2,720 crore investment in 2013-14. NMDC had spent Rs 1,607.24 crore in the previous fiscal.

"The company (NMDC) is also entering into the field of producing high-value products like ferric oxide, iron powder, etc," the documents state.

MOIL Ltd, country's largest manganese ore producer, plans to invest Rs 192.05 crore in 2014-15, up from Rs 133.32 crore in 2013-14. The company had spent Rs 56.93 crore in 2012-13.

KIOCL and MMTC plan to spent Rs 50 crore and Rs 45 crore respectively in the next fiscal. Steel Ministry controls 10 companies.