Steel Giant SAIL Plans ₹7,500 Crore Investment to Boost Production.

State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is accelerating its expansion plans, announcing a 25% increase in capital expenditure for the current financial year. The company will spend ₹7,500 crore to fast-track its goal of nearly doubling its steelmaking capacity by 2030.

SAIL aims to raise its annual installed capacity from 20 million tonnes (MT) to 35 MT by the end of the decade, a project expected to cost nearly ₹1 lakh crore. The company's board has already approved the investment, and it is off to a strong start, having spent ₹1,642 crore in the first quarter of FY26 alone, exceeding its initial target.

"Capex last year was close to ₹6,000 crore. And this year, we have kept a target of ₹7,500 crore throughout

the year, which is a higher target," said SAIL's Director of Finance, Ashok Kumar Panda.

The expansion projects are concentrated across five of its integrated steel plants:

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  West Bengal: Tendering is underway for a 4.5 MT brownfield expansion at the IISCO Steel Plant, which currently has a capacity of 2.5 MT.

  
  


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  Durgapur: A brownfield expansion will increase capacity from 2.2 MT to 3.09 MT, with a greenfield expansion also in the works.

  
  


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  Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Odisha: Further expansion plans for the Bhilai, Bokaro, and Rourkela plants are currently under development.

  
  

The expansion is in line with the National Steel Policy of 2017, which targets a national steelmaking capacity of 300 MT by 2030.

The company reported a strong performance in Q1 FY26, with a consolidated net profit of ₹885.93 crore, a sharp increase from ₹130.98 crore in the same period last year. This was driven by improved operational efficiency and a 15% year-on-year rise in sales volume, making it SAIL's best-ever first quarter for sales.

While strong domestic demand from infrastructure and construction sectors provides a positive outlook, Panda acknowledged that the company faces pressure from global overcapacity and rising imports, particularly from China. In response, SAIL plans to increase its self-sufficiency in iron ore and is looking to reduce its reliance on imported coking coal once production starts at its captive Tasra coal mines.