Public Sector Undertakings

The following Public Sector Undertakings are functioning under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel:

1.                               Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), New Delhi

2.                               Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL), Bangalore

3.                               National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. (NMDC), Hyderabad

4.                               Hindustan Steel Works Construction Ltd. (HSCL), Kolkata

5.                               MECON Ltd., Ranchi

6.                               Manganese Ore (India) Ltd. (MOIL), Nagpur

7.                               Sponge Iron India Ltd. (SIIL), Hyderabad

8.                               Bharat Refractories Ltd. (BRL), Bokaro

9.                               Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL), Visakhapatnam

10.                           MSTC Ltd., Kolkata

11.                           Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd. (FSNL), Bhilai, (A subsidiary of MSTC Ltd.)

Year	Dividend Payment (In Rs. crore)
2003-04	67,04
2004-05	715.58
2005-06	852.50 (estimated)

The private sector has been playing an important role in augmenting steel availability in the country.  As per available information, about 108 MoUs amounting to a steel capacity of 113.32 Mt per annum with an investment of about Rs.2.90 lakh crore, have been signed in the States of Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand.

National Steel Policy

The National Steel Policy was issued by the Government on November 3, 2005, which, inter alia, seeks to enhance the indigenous production to 110 million tonnes per annum by 2019-20 from 2004-05 level of 38 million tonnes, implying a compound annual growth rate of 7.3 per cent.  The focus of the policy is to achieve global competitiveness not only in terms of cost, quality and product, but also in terms of global benchmarks of efficiency and productivity.

Merger of the PSUs in the Ministry

An Expert Group, headed by Shri B.L. Das, Former Secretary (Steel), had been constituted to evaluate the feasibility of various proposals for merger of public sector enterprises under Ministry of Steel, keeping  in view the technical and financial  angles, so that the public sector may continue to contribute effectively to the national interest.  The recommendations of the Group are under examination in the Ministry.

Merger of IISCO with SAIL

In pursuance of the approval of the Cabinet for the proposal of merger of IISCO with SAIL on  June 16, 2005, approval  of BIFR, shareholders of the Company and M/o Company Affairs has been taken.  Now IISCO has been finally merged with SAIL with effect from February 16, 2006,  and has  been renamed as IISCO Steel Plant (ISP).

Corporate Plan of SAIL

SAIL has made an ambitious Corporate Plan 2012 so as to increase its technological capabilities and production capacity.  The plan envisages expenditure of Rs.34,000 crore for all the integrated and the special steel plants.

Expansion Plan of RINL (VSP)

The Government has cleared the expansion proposal of RINL, Visakhapatnam on October 28, 2005, for increasing the liquid steel capacity from the existing 3 Mt, to 6.3 Mt at an estimated cost of Rs.8,692 crore, with a debt equity ratio of 1:1.  This expansion is planned in two stages – with the first stage targeted for a liquid steel capacity of 6.3 MTPA by October, 2008, and the second stage allowing commissioning of Special Bar Mill and Light Structural Mill by October, 2009.

Setting up of Steel Research Institute

The Ministry is setting up a Virtual Centre, namely ‘Steel Research & Development Mission’ (SRDM) at Hyderabad,  as an autonomous registered Society.  The objective of SRDM is to revitalise existing Centres of R&D, developing appropriate technology for cost effective production of quality steel and to identify, evolve and undertake basic and applied research of national importance in iron and steel sector.  The Empowered Committee of Research and Development in the Ministry, in its meeting held on January 17, 2006, has sanctioned Rs.50 crore as an initial corpus to fund R&D projects and Rs.15 crore to meet initial establishment and running cost for 3 years.

Expert Group on Iron Ore, Manganese Ore and Chrome Ore leases

            In April 2005, the Ministry constituted an “Expert Group” for formulating guidelines for preferential grant of mining leases, for iron ore, manganese ore and chrome ore by State governments.  Formulation of such guidelines is one of the policy to augment iron ore availability in the long term to meet the steel production targets set in the policy for 2020.  The report of the Group was received in August 2005, and its recommendations are under consideration.

*****