August 30, 2008

SAIL to revive Steel Complex Limited in Kerala

Mr Elamaram Kareem industries minister of Kerala announced that Steel Authority of India would revive state owned Steel Complex Limited and make it financially self sustaining. He said that "SAIL has agreed to revive the unit in three stages to increase its production level from the existing 20,000 tonnes per year to 50,000 tonnes per year."

He informed that Mr Ram Vilas Paswan union steel minister has cleared the revival package after the state sent him a proposal for taking over Steel Complex Limited. He added that a feasibility report was prepared after SAIL officials visited the unit recently to conduct studies on plant facilities and operational limitations.

Mr kareem said that "As regards financial commitments, SAIL will provide the necessary support for stage-I and for the next two stages, the support will be finalized after completion of the first stage."

He said that in the first stage, production from the current level of 20,000 tonnes would be increased to 50,000 tonnes per year through optimization of process parameters and maintenance practices of electric arc furnace and billet caster without any capital investment in a six month period. He added that while stage II envisaged a capital investment of INR 3 crore in a time period of 10 months, stage III proposed installation of a rolling mill with a capital cost of INR 50 crore in duration of 18 months.