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Kohinoor Mandal

The Bangladesh Government is compelled to procure its coins from outside, as it does not possess a mint.

Kolkata , Aug. 13

THE Union Ministry of External Affairs is helping the Salem Steel Plant, the stainless steel production wing of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), bag an order for minting coins from the Government of Bangladesh.

According to Mr M. Roy, Executive Director of Salem Steel, the plant has already entered into a partnership with Calcutta Mint, a division of the Reserve Bank of India, for this purpose.

Salem Steel and Calcutta Mint had earlier participated in a global tender floated by the Bangladesh Government for minting its coins. Mr Roy said that they had not succeeded in bagging the order.

"A fourth of that total order had gone to Indonesia, and the remaining part was cancelled. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Government has decided to float a fresh tender and we again intend to participate in the tender," Mr Roy told Business Line. In this context, Salem Steel had sought the help of the Union Ministry of External Affairs. According to Mr Roy, representatives of the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh have already held discussions with Salem Steel.

The Bangladesh Government is compelled to procure its coins from outside, as it does not possess a mint. While Salem Steel would supply the stainless steel required for manufacturing the coins, the coin production would be done by Calcutta Mint.

Meanwhile, the board of directors of SAIL has approved the Rs 1,136-crore modernisation plan of Salem Steel Plant. It is now a part of the SAIL Corporate Plan 2011-12. The modernisation programme is divided into two phases. While the first part will focus on backward integration of the plant with a steel melting shop, the second phase will forward integrate Salem Steel with a cold rolling mill and an analysing and prickling unit.

Once the modernisation project is over, Salem Steel Plant's annual capacity will increase from 1.80 lakh tonnes per annum to 3.70 lakh tonnes per annum.Salem Steel will also get steel slabs from the Durgapur-based Alloy Steel Plant, another specialty steel plant of SAIL, once its argon oxygen decarburisation unit is commissioned. It is likely to be ready in 2006.

During 2004-05, Salem Steel's turnover was around in the range of Rs 1,000 crore. In the current financial year, the turnover target is Rs 1,450-1,500 crore. The net profit increased from Rs 1.94 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 3.48 crore in 2004-05.

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