At the World Steel Association's (worldsteel) 45th annual meeting held in Paris on October 12, Rakesh Kulshreshta, executive director (corporate planning) with Indian state-run steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), told SteelOrbis that the current regional decrease in iron ore production in India due to the abolition of some miners' licenses has not affected SAIL's steel production, adding that the company has 4 billion mt of iron ore reserves, which is predicted to be sufficient for the next 50 years with the implementation of new iron ore production projects.
SAIL plans to double iron ore production from its captive mines to 35.5 million mt a year, entailing a total investment of $2.5 billion, including the development of the 1.8 billion mt iron ore reserves at Chiria in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand and the greenfield project for development of its Rowghat iron ore reserves to produce 14 million mt a year.
Mr. Kulshreshta also said that, with the addition of new steelmaking facilities in India, steel production in the country will see a substantial increase in the next two to three years.