The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has received approval, at the board and Ministerial levels for a Rs 1,00,000-crore capex plan, which will contribute to capacity ramp up by approx. 75 percent to 35 MTPA by 2030.

Simulataneously, the company is also working on a concrete decarbonisation plan to bring down its carbon footprint. both greenfield and brownfield ones, The board has already approved a greenfield expansion plan for IISCO Steel Plant in West Bengal to hike capacity to four MTPA. The mill will produce higher grade hot rolled coil (HRC) and API-grade steel products for the oil and gas sector and steel in automotive components. The new mill is expected to be completed in about four years. IISCO’s current capacity is 2.6 MTPA of crude steel, and is utilised for conversion to rebar, wire rods and heavy structural products.

For expansion at Bokaro steel plant, the pre-feasability report studies (PFR) have been completed, as well as a consultant has been appointed for preparation of DPR. Alos, the brownfield expansion and modernisation efforts at the Durgapur Steel Plant have been initiated and plans submitted in October. While a product mix is under-discussion, there will be a new TMT mill of 1.4 MTPA coming up as part of the expansion plan.

A part of the capex will also go towards introduction of 'new technologies', and embedded carbon emissions in steelmaking would be 'substantially lower'. SAIL has already achieved around 20 percent reduction in its first phase of decarbonisation.

The company is now preparing time-bound action plans to achieve less than 2.3 tonne/ tonne of crude steel of CO2 emissions by 2030-31.