Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is an Indian public sector steel manufacturing corporation based in New Delhi designated as Maharatna CPSE.[3] It is the largest government-owned steel producer,[4] with an annual production of 18.29 million metric tons.[5] Incorporated on 24 January 1973, SAIL has 50,001 employees and is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel.
SAIL operates and owns five integrated steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro and Burnpur (Asansol) and three special steel plants at Salem, Durgapur and Bhadravathi. It also owns a Ferro Alloy plant at Chandrapur. It also has an R&D Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS) and a Centre for Engineering in Ranchi, Jharkhand.[6]
The company has a total of 692 patents globally, out of which 343 have been granted. More than 64% of the 692 patents are active. SAIL has filed the maximum number of patents in India, followed by Egypt and Germany.
History
1959–1973
SAIL traces its origin to the Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL), which was set up on 19 January 1954. It was initially designed to manage only one plant that was coming up at Rourkela.
For Bhilai and Durgapur Steel Plants, the preliminary work was done by the Iron and Steel Ministry. From April 1957, the supervision and control of these two steel plants were also transferred to Hindustan Steel. The registered office was originally in New Delhi. It moved to Calcutta in July 1956, and ultimately to Ranchi in December 1959.
A new steel company, Bokaro Steel Limited (Bokaro Steel Plant), was incorporated on 29 January 1964[7][8] to construct and operate the steel plant at Bokaro. The 1 MT phases of Bhilai and Rourkela Steel Plants were completed by the end of December 1961. The 1 MT phase of Durgapur Steel Plant was completed in January 2008.
After the commissioning of the Wheel and Axle plant. The crude steel production of HSL went up from 1.58 MT (1959–60) to 1.6 MT. The second phase of the Bhilai Steel Plant was completed in September 1967 after the commissioning of the Wire Rod Mill.
Major units
SAIL Integrated Steel Plants
Special Steel Plants
Ferro Alloy Plant
Refractory Plants - SAIL Refractory Unit (SRU)
- 1) Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP); India's first integrated steel plant in the public sector, established through collaboration with Germany.
- 2) Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh set up with Soviet collaboration (1959)
- 3) Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) at Durgapur, West Bengal set up with British collaboration (1959)
- 4) Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) in Jharkhand (1964) set up with Soviet collaboration (The Plant is hailed as the country's first Swadeshi steel plant, built with maximum indigenous content in terms of equipment, material, and know-how)
- 5) IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur in Asansol, West Bengal (Plant equipped with largest blast furnace of country, modernized in 2015 with investment of 16000 crore which will yield total production of 2.9 million tons annually)[11]
Central units
- 1) Central Marketing Organisation
- 2) Centre for Engineering and Technology
- 3) Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel
- 4) SAIL Consultancy Organisation[14]
- 5) Environment Management Division[15]
- 6) Management Training Institute, Ranchi[16]
- 7) Central Coal Supply Organisation [17]
- 8) SAIL Collieries Division
Joint ventures
NTPC SAIL Power Company Limited (NSPCL)
A 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. (NTPC Ltd.). It manages the captive power plants at Rourkela, Durgapur, and Bhilai with a combined capacity of 314 MW. It has installed additional capacity by the implementation of a 500 MW (2 x 250 MW Units) power plant at Bhilai. The commercial generation of Unit 1 commenced in April 2009, and that of Unit 2 in October 2009.
During FY2013-14, NSPCL generated 6156.091 MU of electricity with a PLF of 86.33%
- NSPCL, Rourkela (2 x 60 MW)
- NSPCL, Durgapur (2 x 60 MW)
- NSPCL, Bhilai (2 x 30 MW + 1 x 14 MW)
Bokaro Power Supply Company Pvt. Ltd. (BPSCL)
Established in 2001, A 50:50 joint venture between Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and is engaged in power and steam generation and supplies power and steam (at various pressures) to SAIL's Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) located at Bokaro for meeting the process requirement of BSL.
Ownership and management
The Government of India owns about 65% of SAIL's equity and retains voting control of the company. However, SAIL, by virtue of its Maharatna status in May 2010, enjoys significant operational and financial autonomy.
Amarendu Prakash is the current Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).[26]
Operations
As of 31 March 2015, SAIL has 93,352 employees, as compared to 170,368 (as of 31 March 2002). There has been a continuous reduction of headcount over the past few years due to enhanced productivity and rationalised manpower.
The total requirement of its main raw material, iron ore, is met through its captive mines. To meet its growing requirement, capacities of existing iron ore mines are being expanded and new iron ore mines are being developed. In addition, new iron ore deposits in the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Karnataka are being explored. Around 24% of its coking coal requirements are met from domestic sources, the remaining through imports. For improving coking coal security, the company is also making efforts for development of new coking coal blocks at Tasra and Sitanalla.[28] SAIL is also India's largest miner of minerals that are involved in the steel making process, such as iron ore and coking coal.[29] During FY 2019–2020, the company mined 32.406 million tonnes of steel making minerals.[29]
SAIL produced 13.9 million tonnes of crude steel by operating at 103% of its installed capacity, which is an increase of 1% over the previous year.
Awards and accolades
Source:[31]
[34] Of the 33 Prime Minister's Shram Awards announced for 2010 by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, 17 of which went to PSUs, SAIL employees won 11 awards. Of the total number of 76 awardees for the year, 45 belong to SAIL – a remarkable distinction for any organisation. Maharatna SAIL has received the Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for the year 2011. The award, in recognition of SAIL's initiatives and achievements in the field of environment management, was presented by Union Minister for Home Affairs Shri P. Chidambaram on 24 June 2011
74 of a total of 128 awardees who have won the Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (VRP) are from SAIL. The 15 out of 28 awards won by SAIL went to our 74 employees for the performance year 2008. Bhilai Steel Plant won 7 such awards involving 36 employees, Bokaro Steel Plant won 6 awards involving 29 employees. Durgapur Steel Plant and Salem Steel Plant both won 1 award each involving five and four employees respectively. SAIL employees have won 4 out of 5 awards of Class A, which is the highest number of A Class awards won by any PSU in India.
- "Best of all" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award in 1993, 2006, and 2007 for their Bhilai and Bokaro plants[32]
Future plans
SAIL is in the process of modernising and expanding its production units, raw material resources and other facilities to maintain its dominant position in the Indian steel market. The aim is to increase the production capacity from the base level production of 14.6 MT per annum (2006–07) to 26.2 MT per annum of hot metal.
The following table shows the increased production of various items prior to and post expansion.[35]
On 25 May 2012, Steel Authority of India Limited entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of West Bengal and Burn Standard Company Ltd. for setting up of a Railway Wagon factory of approximately inr 2100000000. This project will create an approximate 75,300 jobs. [24][25][36]
The company also looking to establish one full capacity integrated plant in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana and surveying the possibilities to set up the plant. The plant, which was proposed to be the first steel plant of such scale in the state, was estimated to get an investment of Rs.
See also
- List of steel producers
- Steel production by country
External links
References
- Amarendu Prakash takes over as SAIL Chairman Money Control, 31 May 2023, retrieved 31 May 2023^
- SAIL Financial Statements BSE India, 20 May 2024^
- List of Maharatna, Navratna and Miniratna CPSEs