Our Corporate Bureau Ruias-controlled Essar Steel Ltd plans to expand its steel making capacity from the present 2.4 million tonne (mt) to 3.5 mt through de-bottlenecking, according to the company's executive director, Mr Vikram Amin.

"The expansion will not cost us much and will be funded through internal accruals," Mr Amin told reporters here on Tuesday on the sidelines of an international steel seminar - 'Iron & Steel Making Process - Status, Growth Problems and Prospect', organised by the 'Steel Scenario' magazine. The expansion programme at Hazira plant in Gujarat is likely to take 18 months for completion from the date of starting the work, he said. Moreover, the capacity of hot strip mill is also likely to be expanded to meet the growing market demand.

The company has tied up with Steel Corp of Gujarat (SCG), a company promoted by Stemcor. SCG will consume 1.2 mt of hot rolled (HR) coil and 0.5 mt of galvanised sheet a year for value addition. The HR coils will be cold rolled for that purpose.

Mr Amin said that the company's exports have slightly gone down in volume terms, however, the fall in volumes can be compensated in value terms by increasing the prices for HR products. Presently, the company exports around 30 per cent of its production to destinations like Middle-East, China, Bangladesh, among others.