Bokaro Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Ltd will be adding 3.25 million tonne of crude steel capacity for an investment of Rs 1,900 crore (Rs 19 billion), by the turn of the decade. 
 
The plant closed 2003-04 with an all-time high saleable steel production of 3.45 million tonne and crude steel production of 3.75 million tonne. Bokaro's expansion is part of SAIL's roadmap to become a 20 million tonne company. 
 
Addressing the company's annual conference over the weekend, U P Singh, managing director BSL, said Rs 1,900 crore will be invested over 2-3 years, of which, Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) had been approved by the SAIL board. 
 
The plant will spend Rs 400 crore towards modernisation of its cold rolling mill, rebuilding of coke oven battery and cast house slag granulation in blast furnace. The first phase of modernisation will enhance the plant's capacity to four million tonne of crude steel. 
 
Singh said most of the investment will be through internal accruals. The plant specialises in flat products. 
 
Bokaro Steel Plant was set to post record profit in 2003-04. Though he refused to indicate the profit figure, Singh said the plant had set a target of achieving turnover of Rs 8,200 crore (Rs 82 billion) and net profit of Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion) by the next financial year. 
 
Bokaro's turnover last fiscal was Rs 7,300 crore (Rs 73 billion) compared with Rs 6,200 crore (Rs 62 billion) in the previous year. Bokaro is also bracing up to move up the value chain. The plant planned to manufacture coated products, which is at present being produced by only one manufacturer in India. 
 
For coated products, Bokaro had already initiated talks with some companies for technical tie-ups. Singh said greater proportion of continuous casting, colour coating of cold rolled products, better dimensional control will help Bokaro achieve competitiveness. 
 
Project proposals regarding upgradation of the CRM, coal dust injection facility in the remaining blast furnaces and repair of coke oven batteries are already on track. In the first phase, the schemes for CRM modernisation will entail an investment of Rs 218 crore (Rs 2.18 billion), while in the second phase, it will be Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.50 billion).