Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has plans to invest about Rs 10,000 crore to expand and modernise production capacity of IISCO, which was merged with SAIL early this year following a decision by the Union Cabinet in June 2005 that a merger was the only way left to revive the ailing steel company at Burnpur in West Bengal.

The SAIL Chairman, Mr S.K. Roongta, said here on Tuesday that a close look would also be taken at the marketing problems of the Alloy Steel Plant at Durgapur. The plant's management fears that it may lose bulk business from Salem Steel Plant following the latter's decision to implement a forward integration programme. Since Salem's forward integration means the loss of business for Alloy Steel Plant, the problem has to be addressed by SAIL, Mr Roongta said.

Delivering the keynote address at the Metals Conclave here, Mr Roongta said that the country's economic growth had come to a stage when the demand for steel was bound to grow substantially. The demand would be generated mainly from the automobile, infrastructure and construction sectors. Construction sector alone consumed at present about 11 million tonnes of steel items per annum. The quantity was equivalent to about 25% of the country's total steel production.

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