The Union Cabinet is likely to soon take up the long-pending issue of merging Steel Authority of India and its wholly-owned ailing subsidiary Indian Iron & Steel Co (IISCO). The merger first proposed in June 2004 has been awaiting Central clearance for quite some time now.

The merger of SAIL with four integrated plants having combined capacity of around 13 million tpa and IISCO (3 million tpa) will create a large steel monolith.

IISCO is in possession of the Chiria iron ore mines in Jharkhand that have an estimated reserve of 1 billion tonnes of good quality iron ore.  In fact, Chiria iron ore is considered to be the best in Asia. The merger will make available abundant quantities of iron ore to SAIL for its expansion plans. SAIL has planned to hike capacity to 20 million tonnes by March 2012, the end of the XI Plan period. (For a frame of reference, the Chiria mines can supply iron ore to a 25 million tpa steel plant for a period of 25 years.)

In another development, the government is also considering the merger of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (popularly known as Vizag Steel) with SAIL.

Also See:

IISCO to be merged with SAIL (01-Sep-04)