India's Steel Ministry has pointed out that the raw material needs of the two major domestic state-owned steelmakers Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) will increase by up to 39 percent within three years as they are about to complete capacity expansion programs, according to media reports.
RINL's iron ore requirement will reach 9.2 million mt in 2015-16, said Indian steel minister Beni Prasad Verma, adding that its coking coal requirement will increase to 7.08 million mt by 2015-16. On the other hand, over the same period SAIL's coking coal requirements are expected to increase by 33.33 percent to 19.2 million mt, while the company's iron ore requirements will increase by 32.42 percent to 36.8 million mt.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in July last year SAIL announced a $24 billion investment to ramp up capacity to 45 million mt per year by 2020. RINL is also increasing its steelmaking capacity to 6.3 million mt per year from 3 million mt per year.