Two of India’s largest steel producers have undertaken major projects for brownfield expansions of their steel mills, according to information provided by officials on Wednesday, February 28.
Early this month, Minister of State for Steel, Vishnu Deo Sai, informed the Indian Parliament that “all major expansion and modernization plans of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), except for Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), have been completed and are under stabilization.”
The estimated $9.93 billion capital expenditure on modernization and expansion of government-owned SAIL will increase its total pig iron production capacity from 12.8 million mt per year to 21.4 million mt per year.
Tata Steel, for its part, will commence groundbreaking work in April 2018 to expand capacity of its steel mill located at Kalinganagar in the eastern Indian state of Odisha from 3 million mt per year of pig iron to 8 million mt per year, entailing an investment estimated at $3.62 billion, company sources said. The expansion will also result in a large and more diversified product portfolio ensuring higher margin realizations compared to Tata Steel’s parent steel mill at Jamshedpur in the eastern state of Jharkhand.
The expansion project is scheduled for completion in 48 months and value-added steel products from Kalinganagar are expected to account for around 30 percent of total sales earnings from the plant.