Steel Authority of India Limited

1959–1973

SAIL traces its origin to the Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL), which was set up on 19 January 1954. It was initially designed to manage only one plant that was coming up at Rourkela.

For Bhilai and Durgapur Steel Plants, the preliminary work was done by the Iron and Steel Ministry. From April 1957, the supervision and control of these two steel plants were also transferred to Hindustan Steel. The registered office was originally in New Delhi. It moved to Calcutta in July 1956, and ultimately to Ranchi in December 1959.

A new steel company, Bokaro Steel Limited (Bokaro Steel Plant), was incorporated on 29 January 1964 to construct and operate the steel plant at Bokaro. The 1 MT phases of Bhilai and Rourkela Steel Plants were completed by the end of December 1961. The 1 MT phase of Durgapur Steel Plant was completed in January 2008.

After the commissioning of the Wheel and Axle plant. The crude steel production of HSL went up from 1.58 MT (1959–60) to 1.6 MT. The second phase of the Bhilai Steel Plant was completed in September 1967 after the commissioning of the Wire Rod Mill. The last unit of the 1.8 MT phase of Rourkela – the Tandem Mill – was commissioned in February 1968, and the 1.6 MT stage of Durgapur Steel Plant was completed in August 1969 after commissioning of the furnace in SMS. Thus, with the completion of the 2.5 MT stage at Bhilai, 1.8 MT at Rourkela, and 1.6 MT at Durgapur, the total crude steel production capacity of HSL rose to 3.7 MT in 1968–69 and 4 MT in 1972–73. IISCO was taken over as a subsidiary in 1978 and later merged in 2006.

The hot metal production capacity of the company will further increase and is expected to reach 50 MT per annum by 2025.

Holding Company

The Ministry formulated a policy statement to revamp industry management, which was presented to Parliament on 2 December 1972. This initiative proposed creating a holding company to oversee both inputs and outputs. Thus, the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) was established on 24 January 1973, with an authorized capital of ₹2,000 crore (US$250 million). SAIL's mandate included managing five integrated steel plants and two specialty plants. In 1978, SAIL underwent restructuring to function as an operating company.

Mjunction services limited

Mjunction Services Limited, operating in Information Technology and the Internet, is a 50:50 venture promoted by SAIL and TATA Steel. Founded in February 2001, it is today not only India's largest e-commerce company (having eTransacted worth over Rs. 900 billion till date) but also runs the world's largest eMarketplace for steel.

Operations

As of 31 March 2015, SAIL has 93,352 employees, as compared to 170,368 (as of 31 March 2002). There has been a continuous reduction of headcount over the past few years due to enhanced productivity and rationalised manpower.

The total requirement of its main raw material, iron ore, is met through its captive mines. To meet its growing requirement, capacities of existing iron ore mines are being expanded and new iron ore mines are being developed. In addition, new iron ore deposits in the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Karnataka are being explored. Around 24% of its coking coal requirements are met from domestic sources, the remaining through imports. For improving coking coal security, the company is also making efforts for development of new coking coal blocks at Tasra and Sitanalla. SAIL is also India's largest miner of minerals that are involved in the steel making process, such as iron ore and coking coal. During FY 2019–2020, the company mined 32.406 million tonnes of steel making minerals.

SAIL produced 13.9 million tonnes of crude steel by operating at 103% of its installed capacity, which is an increase of 1% over the previous year. It also generated 710 MW of electricity during FY2014-15.