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Steel Minister Lays Foundation Stone for SAIL’s 6th Steel Processing Unit
09/23/2008 - Steel Authority of India celebrates a foundation laying ceremony for its sixth steel processing unit, which will be located in Lassipora, in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir.
Steel Authority of India (SAIL) celebrated this week a foundation laying ceremony for its sixth steel processing unit, which will be located in Lassipora, in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir. The ceremonial foundation stone for the new facility was laid by Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers and Steel Shri Ram Vilas Paswan.
The new facility is part of SAIL’s strategy to meet the market demand for tailor-made steel products and to help increase per capita steel consumption in rural areas. The new facility is the sixth steel processing units that SAIL has built or is building in locations across the country where it does not already have a production facility.
The new Pulwama steel processing unit, which is being built with an initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year, will produce 8- to 25-mm diameter TMT bars and galvanized corrugated sheets from input materials sourced from SAIL's integrated steel plants. Expected to be completed in 18 months, the unit will have a TMT bar mill with 40,000 tonnes/year capacity and a cut-to-length and corrugation line with 60,000 tonnes/year capacity for GP coils/sheets.
Speaking on the occasion, the Steel Minister thanked the J&K government for providing land for the project on priority and urged SAIL to explore the possibility of increasing investment in the state to enhance development.
Stating that the SPU would increase SAIL's presence vastly in J&K, SAIL Chairman Shri S.K. Roongta noted that the company's existing distribution centre in Leh was the highest-altitude steel outlet in the world. "Wherever SAIL goes, it makes a meaningful difference in people's lives," he added, referring to the potential of steel processing units to generate a variety of economic activities.
SAIL's first steel processing unit, coming up in Betiah in Bihar at an estimated cost of Rs. 236 crore, will have the capacity to produce 265,000 tonnes of TMT bars and pipes annually. Another unit in Mahnar, Bihar, which is being set up in two phases at a cost of around Rs. 265 crore, will have the capacity to produce 150,000 tonnes of black and galvanized tubes and 100,000 tonnes of TMT bars, and will also have coil cutting and corrugation facilities.
SAIL is also setting up three units in Madhya Pradesh—at Gwalior, Ujjain and Hoshangabad—with investment of around Rs. 83 crore, Rs. 100 crore and Rs. 154 crore, respectively. While all three units will produce 8- to 25-mm diameter TMT bars, the Hoshangabad unit's product mix also includes angles, channels and beams/joists.
