The government has accorded in-principle approval for strategic disinvestment of three units of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) viz, Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant, Bhadravati, Salem Steel Plant, Tamil Nadu and Alloy Steel Plant, Durgapur. The government has decided to go for the disinvestment due to consistent losses being incurred by the said steel units.

 

Significant steps taken by SAIL to improve the financial performance of the three plants include: capital investment to improve the facilities, reduce consumption level of raw materials, produce optimisation and product-mix improvement, improve techno-economic parameters, address waste management issues, and reduce inventory of finished/semi-finished products, stores and spares and raw materials, reduce logistic cost for transportation of raw materials and finished steel and reduce specific power and water consumption.

 

The entire process of the strategic disinvestment is to be carried out with the help of Transaction Adviser (TA), Legal Adviser (LA) and Asset Valuer (AV) who would advise on appropriate mechanism of disinvestment.

 

The minister of state, ministry of steel, Vishnu Deo Sai provided this information in reply to a question in Lok Sabha.