Honourable Union Minister of Steel, Shri reviewed the working of SAIL marketing setup in Southern Region and SAIL joint venture with Govt. of Kerala. SAIL-SCL Kerala Limited. Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala, Mr. Paul Antony, IAS, participated. SAIL was represented by Shri P.K. Mishra, Executive Director, Shri A.V. Purandare, Regional Manager & SAIL SCL, Kerala was represented by Shri P. Saidev, Managing Director.
Honourable Minister stressed the need of making units of SAIL like Salem Steel Plant and VISL Bhadravati Competitive He added that action plans have to be taken to make the joint venture units like SAIL-SCL Kerala Limited viable. There is good scope of consumption of steel in the state of Kerala as well as in the other parts of the country. SAIL and Govt. of Kerala, he suggested, should work together to promote consumption of steel.
Hon,ble Minister further suggested that a committee of representatives from Steel Ministry, Govt of India, Govt of Kerala and SAIL be formed to find the ways and means of improving capacity utilisation of the JV. Mr Paul Antony pointed out sales volume of TMT from the JV will improve as he State Govt is in the process of ensuring support for the JV.
In his concluding remarks, Honourable Minister advised SAIL officials of Southern Region to work on plans for improving the market share in the Region.