SAIL to invest Rs 1,000cr in greenfield pellet units

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) will invest about Rs 1,000 crore in setting up at least three greenfield pellet plants totalling 6 million tonne (MT) to ramp up its production capacity to more than 24 million tonne by the end of the 11th Plan.

"We are planning to invest between Rs 800-1,000 crore within the next five years to set up three to four pellet plants totalling 6 MT to meet our growing production needs," Chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta told PTI.

He said the proposed plants would be set up near Dalli-Rajhara mines in Chhattisgarh, Taldih mines in Orissa and near its Jharkhand mines. "These plants would be of 2 MT or 3 MT capacity each," Roongta said, pointing out that the pellets supplied by these plants would be used in SAIL's blast furnaces to augment steel production.

"Besides, we are aiming to ensure 100% beneficiation of low-grade iron ore and make them usable in our plants. The company will extensively use iron ore fines and increase beneficiation of existing mines."

Setting up more such projects would depend on increase in capacity of steel production.

Roongta said the country's steel sector was growing at 10-12% per annum and to maintain the tempo, it would have to find ways to produce steel at competitive cost. One of the ways is to extensively use pellets, which would reduce the quantity of iron ore rejects, he said.