Steel cluster unit planned in Vizag

Visakhapatnam: Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) are planning to set up a cluster of steel processing downstream units in the vicinity of the Visakhapatnam steel plant, according to a press release issued by the plant authorities.

The release says that APIIC has evinced interest in the proposal and a preliminary meeting was held in November in which the CMD of the steel plant, Mr P.K Bishnoi, the Managing Director of the APIIC, and other top officials participated. A final decision is awaited.

The release asserts that RINL has always been in the forefront in assisting small-scale units in the country in general and in Andhra Pradesh in particular.

“Due priority is given for supply of steel to end users, including local SSIs. Every year the Union Ministry of Steel allocates steel products from steel majors such as SAIL and RINL to State small-scale industries corporations and the National Small Industries Corporation. Besides that, RINL directly supplies material to SSIs,” says the release.

During 2007-08, the steel plant supplied 90,403 tonnes of steel products to SSICs and NSIC and 6,43,800 tonnes directly to SSIs, of which 2,81,100 tonnes were to units in Andhra Pradesh.

Referring specifically to the demand made recently by some local associations of small-scale industries, urging the State Government to take back some land from the steel plant and allocate it to them, the press release says that the steel plant has no land to spare and the land in its possession will be needed for expansion of capacity from the current 3.2 million tonnes to 16 million tonnes in phases.