On September 30, the shareholders of Indian steel giant Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) unanimously approved the scheme of merger of Indian manganese-based ferroalloy producer Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Limited (MEL) with SAIL at the company's 38th annual general meeting (AGM) held in New Delhi. Maharashtra Elektrosmelt was acting as SAIL's subsidiary.
SAIL chairman C.S. Verma also revealed that the company has made plans to set up additional incremental power generation capacity, saying, "SAIL's power requirement is expected to grow to around 1,900 MW by 2012-13 from the current level of about 1,180 MW. By 2020, the average load of steel plants, including the power requirement of mines, is likely to grow to about 4,600 MW."
SAIL will set up power generation capacity in a phased manner to meet this requirement. In the first stage, capacity of around 1,725 MW is proposed to be set up.
Informing the shareholders about the company's short-term outlook, Verma said that to meet the enhanced iron ore requirement of about 43 million mt for hot metal production of 23.5 million mt after the first phase of modernization and expansion of SAIL is completed in 2012-13, the company is vigorously pursuing the issue of early renewal of leases of the Chiria and Gua mines, besides augmenting production from its existing captive mines.
In addition to the sourcing of raw materials, SAIL will "pursue overseas opportunities for marketing of products as well," Verma said, pointing at huge infrastructure projects in developing regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia.
SAIL shareholders were also informed that the company is looking at increasing the share of value-added items in its product basket from the present level of around 37 percent to around 50-55 percent.