Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Durgapur, 21 Sep 04 :
The Durgapur Steel Plant unit of SAIL is going to invest Rs. 2800 cores over a period of next eight years for its modernisation. The steel plant had invested Rs. 5000 cores for its first phase of modernisation about five years ago. The steel major will `import' technology from Italy this time for its plans. 

In the year 1989, SAIL took help of German & Russain technology & machinery to revamp the major steel unit of the state. This time an Italian company have been entrusted to install a bloom cluster at a cost of Rs. 271 cores. The new cluster has a capacity of 8.5 lakh tonnes of production capacity. A ladle furnace & a thermal recycling unit will also be installed shortly. In addition to this, the authorities are all set to revamp one of its blast furnace to increase its capacity to produce 3.5 million ton of  hot-metal. 

DSP is looking forward to almost double its capacity from current 18.6 lakh tonnes to 30 lakh tonnes after revamping the facilities. The authorities informed that, the plant will take every measure to ensure profitability of this steel major. The plant recorded a profit of 81 core rupees last year. Although DSP exported 2.75 lakh tonnes of steel last fiscal year, it only managed to record an export of only 24000 tonnes in the first five months. The company officials informed that the company is eyeing on the domestic market as recent market survey reveals that, the domestic consumption of steel will rise from current 35 million tonnes to 60 million tonnes by the year 2012.