BL reported that Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation are planning to set up a cluster of steel processing downstream units in the vicinity of the Visakhapatnam steel plant.

Official said that APIIC has evinced interest in the proposal and a preliminary meeting was held in November in which the Mr PK Bishnoi CMD of RINL, the MD of the APIIC and other top officials participated. A final decision is awaited.

The report said that “Due priority is given for supply of steel to end users, including local SSIs. Every year the Union Ministry of Steel allocates steel products from steel majors such as SAIL and RINL to State small scale industries corporations and the National Small Industries Corporation. Besides that, RINL directly supplies material to SSIs.”

As per report, RINL has always been in the forefront in assisting small scale units in the country in general and in Andhra Pradesh in particular. During 2007-08, the steel plant supplied 90,403 tonne of steel products to SSICs and NSIC and 643,800 tonne directly to SSIs of which 2,81,100 tonne were to units in Andhra Pradesh.