Mr S.K. Roongta
Kolkata, Feb. 4, 2010 - Steel Authority of India Ltd's proposed disinvestment may not be through this fiscal as it is not clear yet if the Union Cabinet will approve the proposal shortly.
"We're not sure," Mr S.K. Roongta, Chairman of SAIL, told newspersons here on Thursday. "It is for the Government to decide; perhaps, the Ministry of Steel will be able to throw light on it."
The process, he said, would start once the Government gives the green signal. "We're ready with our preparation in this regard," he observed while talking to newspersons on the sidelines of the IREFCON2010, the Eighth India International Refractories Congress organised by the Indian Refractory Makers Association.
The SAIL Chairman did not foresee any major change in steel prices in the coming months unless raw material prices jumped significantly. "The product prices have stabilised," he said pointing out that the prices of long products, after some increases, had stabilised now while the flat product prices had remained stable. Between August and December last year the prices had actually dropped, he said. In reply to a question he said that no decision had yet been taken on the proposal to form SAIL Videsh. "We've no information in this regard," he said, adding that he was not aware of any development on the report of proposed disbanding of International Coal Ventures Ltd.
"We all would like ICVL to make some progress but the participation in ICVL does not prevent its members from bidding for assets independently," he observed. Asked if SAIL would bid for the coal blocks to be auctioned by Coal India Ltd, he replied that the ST Mining, the joint venture between SAIL and Tata Steel, had already responded to the EoIs floated in this regard and was one of the shortlisted firms. SAIL was also in touch with Coal India Ltd and its subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Ltd to bring to production some of the coal blocks lying unexplored.
Referring to the recent fire in Bhilai Steel Plant, Mr Roongta said the engineers and others were busy bringing the plant back to normal production as early as possible. Later, he left for Bhilai.
Inquiries with Bhilai Steel Plant revealed that one of the boilers in the power and blowing station was commissioned on Thursday and hopefully three blast furnaces would start production shortly.
Six out of the plant's seven blast furnaces were in operation when the fire took place. As a result of the fire, the loss of production of hot metal is estimated at more than 60,000 tonnes. The plate mill started production from Wednesday, add BSP sources.