The Hindu Business Line : SAIL open to joint ventures abroad

Plans ahead
On the expansion front, the Chairman said work is in full swing to compress the five-year expansion plan to three years to remain ahead of competition before the POSCO and Mittal and other big projects come up.

Mr S.K. Rungta, Chairman, SAIL. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Sept. 1

While the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is contemplating domestic joint ventures such as taking up a 5 to 10 per cent stake in the special purpose vehicle floated by the Railways for its freight corridor project and another with Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) for developing Kapuria coking coal mines, the public sector steel giant is also open to joint ventures abroad, the new Chairman of the company, Mr S.K. Rungta, told Business Line.

While the company already had discussions with Coal India for joint ventures abroad, the company is ready to look forward further.

"SAIL is always open to any proposal which makes business proposition for the company. In today's world you cannot close your eyes and don't look at other options. It's a dynamic world and SAIL has to evaluate its business options continuously," he said.

The SAIL Chairman said that for the future of the Indian steel industry iron ore exports should be curbed.

"We should conserve ore. The question is whether it would be an abrupt halt or to phase it out. I feel it should be phased out so that there is no pain in the process," he said.

Commenting on the row over Chiria iron ore mines involving SAIL, the Jharkhand Government and Mittal Steel, Mr Rungta said, "we welcome the initiative by the Centre to have the issue resolved."

"Discussions are in progress and we hope to get the matter resolved through discussions only," he said.

Jharkhand plans

Mr Rungta added: "SAIL is ready to meet all developmental aspirations of Jharkhand. We have Bokaro plant in Jharkhand for which we already have expansion plans some of which are in progress. We can actually look into even further building up capacity in the State."

On the merger of PSUs, he said that the target for completion of merger of Maharashtra Electrosmelt with SAIL has been fixed at April 2007 and for Nilachal Ispat the process of appointing of merchant banker is in progress.

Apart from equity participation in the Railway's freight corridor project, the company's Bhilai Steel Plant is also in talks with the railways for developing extra heavy weight railway tracks for heavy goods transport at higher speeds, he said.

On the expansion front, the Chairman said work is in full swing to compress the five-year expansion plan to three years to remain ahead of competition before the POSCO and Mittal and other big projects come up.

Stating that the company is now eyeing to achieve 40 million tonnes capacity by 2019-20 by looking beyond the current corporate plan of 20 million tonnes, Mr Rungta said that SAIL's per capita productivity would go up substantially during the coming years.

The current manpower in the company is around 1.37 lakh. Mr Rungta said, "It may come down further while our production volumes will grow. Manpower may come down by another 8-10 thousand in the next four years but simultaneously skill gaps would have to be filled in with fresh intake," he said.