New Delhi, March 27 A parliamentary panel has asked SAIL to strengthen its sales and take steps to improve revenue realisation and market competitiveness, as certain advanced and special steel grades remain outside its portfolio.
The report titled 'Organisational Structure and Performance of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)- A Review' was presented by the Standing Committee on Coal, Mines and Steel (2025-2026) in Parliament on Friday.
The committee urges that SAIL may further strengthen its sales and marketing network to ensure seamless movement of raw materials and efficient distribution of finished products, thereby enabling wider availability of products across.
The company may also consider expanding and enhancing its digital sales platforms, deepening the key account management programme, and increasing the share of value-added and high-margin products in its overall sales mix to improve both revenue realisation and market competitiveness.
While SAIL has made commendable progress in developing several high-steel grades, extra deep drawing (EDD) and interstitial free (IF) steel, cold rolled grain oriented electrical, and certain advanced alloy and speciality steel currently imported remain outside SAIL's portfolio, the committee said, urging the company to place greater emphasis on R&D for new steel grades.
For raw materials, the committee suggested SAIL to pursue exploration and the acquisition of new coking coal blocks in order to reduce dependence on imports and strengthen long-term raw material security.
SAIL has plans to expand its capacity to 35 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030-31 and 50 MTPA by 2047.
The committee said that "while board approvals have been accorded for expansion projects at IISCO Steel Plant, Durgapur Steel Plant and Bokaro Steel Plant, the tendering and execution stages have experienced delays".
The committee said it hopes SAIL may prepare a time-bound, phase-wise roadmap for modernisation and capacity expansion with clearly defined milestones and accountability mechanisms.
SAIL also needs to make substantial investments towards upgrading blast furnaces and installing oxygen plants across its units.
It must also prepare turnaround plans for loss-making plants with specific performance milestones.
"Out of 11 plants under SAIL, 6 have recorded losses in the last financial year," the committee has noted.
It has also been suggested that SAIL may prepare a plant-wise water conservation action plan with specific targets for reducing water consumption and increasing the recycling ratio.
The committee further suggested SAIL to reduce power purchase cost through a combination of captive power plant expansion, coke dry quenching installations and enhanced waste heat recovery systems.