India’s Ministry of Steel is likely to appoint a committee of experts to improve the operational efficiency of Indian government-owned steel company Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) with an inter alia mandate to enable the steel company to shift from brownfield expansion to increasing production volumes of value-added steel, a senior government official said on Friday, March 31.
The official said that at present SAIL focuses on expanding its basic steelmaking capacity from 16.4 million mt per year to 21 million mt per year through modernization and expansion of its existing steel mills.
However, the expert committee will be expected to chalk out a shift towards more value-added special steel production capacities as a long-term turnaround and operational efficiencies and profitability will come only from value-added products and not commodity steel production as is the case now, he added.
At present production of value-added steel accounted for 40 percent of SAIL’s total production and in the first phase the target will be to push this up to 50 percent and up further 70 percent over a period of time to ensure higher margins and the long-term financial sustainability of the company, the official said.
Another area to be bolstered by SAIL will be to offer higher levels of steel services which will include greater customization for customers and thereby reduce steel processing needs at the customer end, he added.