Steel Authority of India Ltd

A company Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL) was set up in 1954. HSL was initially designed to manage one plant that was coming up at Rourkela with the help of German Firms. For Bhilai and Durgapur Steel Plants, the preliminary work was done by the Iron and Steel Ministry. From April 1957, the supervision and control of these two steel plants were also transferred to Hindustan Steel Limited.

Later in 1964, Bokaro Steel Limited was incorporated. Later the concept of creating one umbrella came up and 1973 with a capital of ` 2000 crore, Steel Authority of India Ltd was created.

Tagline: There’s a little bit of SAIL in everybody’s life.

Chairman: S C Verma

The Current Government Shareholding in SAIL: 85.82% (March 2009).

Plants and Units:

SAIL has five integrated steel plants at

1. Bhilai (Chattisgarh),
2. Rourkela (Orissa),
3. Durgapur (West Bengal),
4. Bokaro (Jharkhand), and
5. Burnpur (West Bengal).

SAIL has three special and alloy steels plants viz.

1. Alloy Steels Plant at Durgapur (West Bengal),
2. Salem Steel Plant at Salem (Tamil Nadu)
3. Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant at Bhadravati (Karnataka).

In addition to these, a Ferro Alloy producing plant at Chandrapur is owned by Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Limited which is a subsidiary of SAIL.

SAIL has seven central units viz.

1. Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel (RDCIS),
2. Centre for Engineering and Technology (CET) and Management Training Institute (MTI), all located at Ranchi,
3. Central Coal Supply Organisation (CCSO) located at Dhanbad
4. Raw Materials Division (RMD) and Environment Management Division (EMD), located at Kolkata.

Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Ltd.: A Subsidiary of Sail

Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Limited is situated in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, and is a major producer of ferro manganese and silico manganese for captive use of SAIL plants. The authorized and paid-up share capital of the company as on March 31, 2009 were Rs. 30 crore and Rs. 24 crore respectively. SAIL’s holding is approximately 99.12% of the paid-up capital.

Quick Facts: Financial Figures

The authorized capital of SAIL is ` 5000 crore.

The paid-up capital of the company was Rs. 4130.40 crore as on 31st March, 2009, out of which 85.82% is held by the Government of India and the balance 14.18% by the financial institutions / GDR-holders /banks/employees/individuals etc.

1. Profit before tax of ` 7065.19 crore and profit after tax of ` 4669.47 crore.
2. Sales turnover of ` 30928.82 crore.
3. The SAIL Board approved an interim dividend to the shareholders of the company at Rs. 1.60 per equity share for the financial year 2009-10.
4. Produced 9.4 MMT of saleable steel by achieving 108% capacity utilization, and produced 10.908 MMT of hot metal and 10.175 MMT of crude steel.
5. Production of Special steel/Value added products at 3.44 MMT was best ever achieved, with a growth of 20% over the corresponding period of the previous year.

Quick Facts: Important Mines of SAIL:

• Chiria Iron Ore Mines, Jharkhand
• Gua Iron Ore Mines, Jharkhand
• Kiriburu-Meghahatuburu Iron Ore Mines, Jharkhand
• Barsua-Kalta Iron Ore Mines, Orissa
• Bolani Iron Ore Mines, Orissa

SAIL: A Maharatna

The Government of India has accorded the status of ‘Maharatna’ to Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) through a memorandum issued on 19th May 2010. Three other Central Public Sector Enterprises – Indian Oil Corporation Limited, NTPC Limited and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited – have also received ‘Maharatna’ status.

SAIL in Current Affairs: 2010

Disinvestment in SAIL:

The government currently owns 85.82% stake in SAIL. Besides, about 4.59% is with the Life Insurance Corporation and the rest is with the other stakeholders. SAIL had submitted the proposal for its public offer to the ministry and is awaiting approval for the proposed issue, proceeds of which would part finance its Rs. 70,000-crore expansion project. Its worth note that SAIL has a capital expenditure programme of about Rs10,300 crore for the current fiscal. The company is in the process of expanding its annual production capacity to about 23 million tonnes by 2012 from the present 14 million tonnes. On 20 october 2009, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), received approval from the department of disinvestment for a 20% stake sale, part of a Central divestment programme. The company received approval for a public offer equivalent to 10% of existing capital. Another 10% in two stages will be sold from the government’s holding in the company.

SAIL-POSCO Pact: (March 2010)

In March 2010, POSCO has teamed up with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) to set up an about Rs15,000 crore steel plant at Bokaro, in Jharkhand.SAIL and Posco have entered into an in-principle agreement to set up a half a MMTplant in Bokaro. The steel mill using Posco’s FINEX technology will initially attract an estimated investment of Rs15,000 crore (as reported by PTI).

SAIL-RITES Pact (September 2010)

The Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Railways namely M/s. RITES Limited signed a joint venture agreement with the Public Sector Undertaking of Ministry of Steel namely Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for setting up a Wagon Manufacturing Factory in Joint Venture (JV) at Kulti near Asansol in Bardhman district of West Bengal.

• This JV agreement comes as the fulfillment of the announcement made by the Minister of Railways, Mamata Banerjee in the Railway Budget 2010-11 wherein she has announced the setting up of State-of-the-art Wagon Manufacturing Factories in Joint Venture/PPP at five locations, including Bardhaman.
• The other locations are Secunderabad, Bhubaneshwar/Kalahandi, Haldia and Guwahati.

The proposed joint venture Wagon Manufacturing Factory would be equipped to handle 1500 wagons per annum (manufacture of 1200 wagons and rehabilitation of 300 wagons). The factory can manufacture BOXN type wagons including specialized high end wagons. It can also undertake manufacturing modern Stainless Steel wagons with marginal investment in plant and machinery. The project cost is envisaged to be around Rs. 85 crores in Phase-I going upto Rs. 120 crore in Phase-II. SAIL will provide land measuring about 12 acres inside SAIL Growth Works (SGW), Kulti. The plant is envisaged to be erected and commissioned within 14 months from the date of incorporation of the joint venture company.