Indian state owned steel maker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) had scheduled an auction today (12th Nov’18) for sale of about 5,200 MT steel grade pig iron from its Rourkela Steel plant (RSP).
As per participants, RSP received dull response even though the company had cut base prices as against previous auction held on 1st Nov’18.
In today’s auction the company had kept base prices at INR 29,400/MT (USD 403) as against base price in previous auction at INR 30,000/MT (USD 411). However despite low base prices the company was able to sale only 300 MT pig iron out of 5,200 MT.
The key factors behind the dull response highlighted by participants are – resumption in operations by NINL whose blast furnace was closed for almost a month since 8th Oct’18 owing to some technical issue.
Market expects NINL to release domestic price circular soon. Company’s last offers for N1 (steel) grade material was at around INR 28,500-28,900/MT (USD 391-396) ex-plant, Cuttack, Odisha. NINL is India’s largest pig iron producer & exporter with an annual installed capacity of around 9 lakhs MT.
SAIL to Invest INR 41,000 cr More to Expand RSP Capacity
Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said it will invest INR 41,000 crore to ramp up capacity of its Rourkela unit from 4 MnT pa to 10 MnT pa. The capacity upgrade is projected to be commissioned in two years.
SAIL chairman AK Chaudhary said the PSU has pumped in INR 14,000 crore to expand steel tonnage capacity to 4.5 MnT pa from 2 MnT pa. Projects worth INR 6,000 crore including a new hot strip mill are under implementation, the SAIL chairman said here at the Make in Odisha 2018, a biennial investors conclave.
“Our ramp up to 10 MTPA will generate 10,000 additional jobs directly. Besides 50,000 people stand to be indirectly engaged” Chaudhary said.
He exuded confidence that SAIL would soon be manufacturing auto grade steel.
“The domestic steel industry is in a phase of consolidation and alignment. But our focus will be on organic growth” Chaudhary added.
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