Steel plant set for further expansion.

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, will engage a consultant soon to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to increase the capacity to 11.5 or 12 million tonne by 2022.

Presently, VSP has completed expansion from three million tonne to 6.3 million tonne with a total investment of Rs. 12,300 crore through internal accruals. M.N. Dastur & Co. had conducted a preliminary study on further expansion of VSP.

'Once our board approves the decision to prepare DPR for 11.5 or 12 million tonne expansion, we will appoint a consultant,' RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director P. Madhusudan told The Hindu recently.

For the expansion, RINL will be needing an investment of Rs. 4,500 crore (at the present rate) for adding one million tonne. The Navratna company has raised funds for capital repairs and modernisation of blast furnaces and other facilities for an amount of Rs. 5,000 crore at 1:1 debt equity ratio.

It has a long-term agreement with NMDC to meet its iron ore requirement. The company needs 1.6 million tonne iron ore to produce one million tonne of steel. Almost 80 per cent of coal requirement is sourced from Australia.

Admitting that there was some delay in ramping up production under expansion project, he said due to Hudhud, the commissioning of two rolling mills got delayed. He said now they were concentrating on ramping up production of new units.

Referring to National Steel Policy’s target to achieve 300 million tonne capacity by 2025-26, he said RINL had adopted a corporate vision to become the largest single plant with a production capacity of 20 million tonne in two to three phases by 2032.


THE HINDU