Electrosteel Steel Eyes 10 Million Tons Capacity

Electrosteel Steel, now owned by the Vedanta Group, is raising its capacity to 1.7 million tons (mt) by March from 1.5 mt now through debottlenecking process, company’s deputy chief executive officer Pankaj Malhan said.

- Steel Insights Bureau

The company is an integrated steel producer in the long product segment and the new management, controlled by the Vedanta Group, also has plans to raise the capacity later to 3 mt in 2 years’ time.

“We plan to reach 10 million plus tons in the next 5-6 years’ time. There are also plans to rename the company in near future,” Malhan said while launching the rebranded product portfolio with V-Xega for TMT bars, V-Ducpipe for DI pipes and V-Wirro for steel wires.

“The branding will give us mileage in terms of getting into new segments as we are not there in retail. We would continue to focus on the eastern region which is our biggest market. But once we double the capacity, we need to branch out to other regions,” Electrosteel chief financial officer Jalaj Malpani, said on the sidelines of a press conference.

Expansion of capacity beyond 3 mt to 7mt in the phase 2 expansion project would see Electrosteel moving into products like Hot Rolled, Cold Rolled sheets and galvanised products as well, Malhan added.

About 4,000-5000 crore would be the caped to be spent in raising capacity to 3 mt, he said.

For reaching 10 mt, Electrosteel would be looking at locations other than Bokaro and may explore setting up plants in southern part of the country. Vedanta will increase the capacity at Bokaro to 6 mt and the remaining 4 mt could be from greenfield or acquisitions, Malhan said.

Electrosteel has around 2,000 acre of land of which current capacity is spread over 900 acre and the balance would be sufficient for the aggregate 6 mt capacity at the same site, an official of the company said.

Vedanta seeks to make Electrosteel a more vibrant, quality conscious and environmentally friendly company, he said.

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