The concerted efforts by Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) on increasing exports share have started to bear fruits. In the month of February, 2017 SAIL has achieved the best-ever monthly volume of steel export in the last 10 years.
A total of 1.03 lakh tonnes of steel were exported last month, which includes the first-time shipment of CE marked plates from the New Plate Mill of SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant to Europe. The new 4.3-meter-wide Plate Mill with initial capacity of 1.0 MT can be augmented to 1.8 MT and is equipped with state-of-art technology which can produce wide range of plates with close dimensional tolerance, perfect flatness and surface finish to meet stringent international standards.
The other products which contributed to this record exports include wire rods, hot rolled coil, billets and slabs.
During the current financial year 2016-17, SAIL has already exported 6.82 lakh tonnes of steel products. The Company now aims to export 10% of its total production every year. Towards this end, in FY18, SAIL hopes to export double the volumes achieved during the current fiscal.
SAIL plans to soon diversify its export basket with cold rolled and galvanized products from the new Cold Rolling Mill at Bokaro, as well as structurals from the new Universal Section Mill at Burnpur and Medium Structural Mill at Durgapur. Through the enriched product offering the Company aims to consolidate its presence not only in South East Asian markets but also in Europe.