Steel Authority of India or SAIL

SAIL or Steel Authority of India is India's largest state-owned iron ore producer established in 1954. It is one of the leading steel-making company in India and also has the second largest mines network with all of its plants being ISO certified as well. It manufactures and sells a wide variety of steel products such as hot and cold rolled sheets and coils, the galvanized sheets of steel, electrical sheets, structurals, railway products, plates, bars and rods, stainless steel and many other types of alloy steels. It also produces a great as well as flat steel products, which are in demand in both the domestic and the international market. It produces steel for residential construction, defense industries, railways, engineering, and power and also for sale in the export market. SAIL has a steel plant located in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. Maharashtra Elektrosmelt (MEL) is a subsidiary of the SAIL. It also has many joint ventures with some big giant companies such as NTPC, Tata Steel, Damodar Valley Corporation, BMW Industries, Jaiprakash Associates and also the Manganese Ore. It also owns the Central Marketing Organization (CMO) and the International Trade Division, which consists of at least 34 branch offices and 54 stockyards located in all the major cities and towns across India. The company has a Research and Development center in Ranchi that develops new types of technologies for the steel industries. The steel major itself has at least four decades of experience with expert knowledge in the steel and iron industry. Also, SAIL Consultancy Division also known as SAILCON, provides a spectrum of the services to the iron and steel and many other industries in India and overseas. The company is in the process of both modernizing as well as expanding its raw material resources, production units, and other facilities to maintain its same dominant position in the Indian steel market as usual as its objective is to achieve the production capacity of about 26.2 MTPA of Hot Metal.

Some of the Special Steel Plants:

1. Alloy Steel Plant (ASP), Durgapur, West Bengal
2. Salem Steel Plant (SSP), Maramangalathupatti, Salem
3. Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited (VISL), Bhadravathi, Karnataka

Some of the Refractory Plants - SAIL Refractory Unit (SRU):

1. SAIL Refractory Unit, Bhandaridah in Jharkhand
2. SAIL Refractory Unit, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh
3. SAIL Refractory Unit, IFICO, Ramgarh in Jharkhand
4. SAIL Refractory Unit, Ranchi Road in Jharkhand

The Milestones:

1. It received Dun and Bradstreet's American Express Award 2007 as the Top Indian Company in the iron and steel sector.
2. SAIL received the FICCI Annual Award 2006–07 for its outstanding achievement in the category of rural and community development initiatives.
3. The company bagged Employers of Choice Award 2007 by CNBC–TV18 in the PSU category.
4. SAIL was awarded the Golden Peacock Award 2007 for its corporate social responsibility.
5. SAIL was awarded the SCOPE Meritorious Award for Environment Excellence & Sustainable Development for FY 2010.
6. SAIL received the maiden Wockhardt Shining Star CSR Award in the Iron & Steel Sector category in 2011.
7. Maharatna SAIL has received the prestigious Golden Peacock Environment Management Award for the year 2011.

Some of the recent developments:

It is exposed to dual concerns of slack demand and plunging prices across all categories; a state-owned steel giant has formed at least five task forces to review the market, and enabling to take corrective steps. The newly constituted five task forces comprising directors of SAIL would suggest reorientation of the product–mix with the purpose to match the supply in tune with the demand of products. They would also look for opportunities to procure cheaper raw materials like coking coal, limestone, dolomite, ferromanganese, and refractories in the present downturn market.