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SAIL Plans Fourth Steel Processing Unit
06/16/2008 - SAIL is planning to build its fourth steel processing unit, which will produce 8- to 25-mm diameter bars from billets supplied by SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant.
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is planning to build a fourth steel processing unit (SPU) at the Bandaka Industrial Area in the Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh.
The Ujjain facility will produce 8- to 25-mm diameter bars from billets supplied by SAIL’s Bhilai Steel Plant. Being built at a cost of around Rs 100 crore, the unit will feature a 100,000 tonnes/year bar mill with pusher-type reheat furnace, mill trains, crop-cum-cobble shear, cooling bed, dividing shear, cut-to-length, and bundling & tying facilities for bars. The facility will also include a warehousing facility.
The foundation stone for SAIL’s Ujjain steel processing unit was laid by Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers and Steel, Ram Vilas Paswan, who noted that SAIL's decision to set up steel processing units was in tandem with one of the aims of the National Steel Policy of increasing per-capita steel consumption in rural areas from the present 2 kg to 4 kg by 2019-20. He urged SAIL to ensure that each of the processing units being set up in Madhya Pradesh would become operational by August 15th, 2009, well before their scheduled completion time of 24 months.
This will be SAIL's second steel processing unit in Madhya Pradesh. Paswan also laid the foundation stone for another steel processing unit that will produce angles, channels, beams/joists and TMT bars. This unit is being set up with an investment of around Rs. 154 crore, in the Hoshangabad district. SAIL has planned to set up a third steel processing unit in Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior as well, the foundation stone for which is likely to be laid in the first week of August 2008. The three units being set up in Madhya Pradesh will also contribute to the development of the region by generating employment and catalyzing rural-based ancillary industries.
The three new units are part of SAIL’s overall plan to set up 10 steel processing units in 6 states where it does not have any production facility to meet the market demand for tailor-made steel products and to help increase per-capita steel consumption in rural areas. The new units are to use products such as hot rolled coils, billets and TMT bars produced by SAIL's main integrated steel plants to manufacture a wide variety of steel items that can be utilized by the general public.
SAIL's first steel processing unit, coming up at Betiah in Bihar at a cost of around Rs. 236 crore, will have the capacity to produce 265,000 tonnes of TMT bars and pipes. Its first phase is likely to be completed by August 2008. Another unit at Mahnar in Bihar, also being set up in two phases at a cost of Rs. 265 crore, will have the capacity to produce 1.5 lakh tonnes of black and galvanized tubes and 1 lakh tonnes of TMT bars. This unit will also have coil cutting and corrugation facilities.
