SAIL to achieve 19.5 MTPA capacity by Sept

The company is implementing Rs 72,000-cr expansion programme to raise hot metal capacity to 23.5 MTPA

Domestic steel giant SAIL, which has undertaken a massive Rs 72,000 crore modernisation and expansion plan, will ramp up its capacity to 19.5 million tonnes (MT) by September.

The present hot metal capacity of SAIL is 14 MT.

"We are confident of taking our capacity to 19.5 MT by September-end and completing the expansion programme to take the capacity to 23.5 MT in the next fiscal," Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) Chairman C S Verma told PTI.

The company is implementing Rs 72,000 crore expansion programme to raise hot metal capacity to 23.5 MTPA.

Verma said: "SAIL's focus in the current fiscal would be to complete the balance facilities under our modernisation and expansion programme and ramp up production from the new units in the shortest possible time."

SAIL has cumulatively spent Rs 53,270 crore on the programme till March 2014.

During 2013-14, projects worth about Rs 6,500 crore were operationalised, resulting in the addition of 2.5 MT hot metal capacity.

The projects include a new blast furnace and slab caster at Rourkela, a new ore handling plant and sinter machine at Bhilai and a rebuilt coke oven battery at Durgapur.

Further, the steel giant has plans to ramp up capacity to 50 MTPA by 2025 entailing investments of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

The proposed capacity expansion to 50 MTPA is in line with government's vision of enhancing India's steel-making capacity to 300 MTPA by 2025, from 85 MTPA at present.

The company had registered 20.6% growth in net profit to Rs 2,616 crore in FY'14.

SAIL's gross turnover was Rs 51,866 crore in FY14, which Verma said was the highest ever and had increased more than 5% from Rs 49,350 crore in FY13.