To facilitate acquisition and development of appropriate technologies, SAIL would invest more than 1% of its gross sales on R&D activities.
The company's board has also approved a master plan for R&D, the Maharatna firm said in a statement today.
Going by the gross sales figures of Rs 47,040.50 crore reported by the company for the year ended March 31, 2011, the R&D budget of the Maharatna company would be a little more than Rs 470 crore for this year.
However, the company did not mention the budgeted amount for R&D.
SAIL said, "The plan specifically targets production of cold rolled grain-oriented (CRGO) electrical steels, development of alternative iron-making technologies, endless strip production, carbon dioxide reduction and sequestration, and optimising land use by designing compact steel plants."
It added that "the new strategy takes R&D to a much higher pedestal in SAIL, with R&D expenditure set to exceed 1% of gross sales."
The statement further said that at the corporate level, the company will undertake technology missions and high impact projects, which will be targeted at reducing raw material and energy consumption.
Besides, the initiatives will be also aimed at imparting greater flexibility for raw material usage, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and improved waste utilisation.
"The plan targets beneficiation and pelletisation of low-grade ores and increasing the use of medium and non-coking coal in steel making," it added.
"The future orientation of R&D activity in the steel sector would be directed towards mitigating the challenges of paucity of raw materials and ensuring sustainable steel making. These will be the prime focus of our R&D strategy," SAIL Chairman C S Verma said.
It added that the company would also set up centre of excellence (COE) at the individual steel plants level to focus on various product development and improvements in collaboration with key customers and technology suppliers.
Moreover, the company will also create a corporate R&D set-up as an umbrella organisation, which will oversee both centralised R&D and the plant-level COEs, the statement said.
