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Essar sets up steel centre at Oragadam

— Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

Closer to customer: Sashi Ruia (left), Chairman, Essar Group, with T. S. Narayanasami, CMD, Bank of India, at the inauguration of Essar Steel’s service centre facility at Oragadam near Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: To meet the increasing demand for customised products and small lots of processed steel, Essar Steel has augmented its steel service centre capacity to more than two million tonnes from the current 1.2 million tonnes. The company has put up three state-of-the-art service steel service centres one each in Pune, Chennai and the NCR region. The Chennai centre, located at the SIPCOT Industrial Growth Centre at Oragadam, was inaugurated on Saturday by T. S. Narayanasami, Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of India, in the presence of Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar Group. Trial runs are under way at the other two centres.

Addressing visiting presspersons to the facility, Mr. Shashi Ruia said the Chennai centre would carry more than 20,000 tonnes of steel inventory at any point of time to cater to regular, urgent and complex needs of customers. The investment at the Chennai centre is Rs. 75 crore and the company has already established a steel service centre with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes at its Hazira facility.

According to Mr. Narayanasami the innovative and useful concept of establishing such service centres in the current economic situation would enable considerable cost savings for customers especially in small and medium enterprises and capital goods segments.

Ravi Singh, Vice President, Service Centre and Business Development, Essar Steel said the choice of Chennai was on account of large growing market, one of the largest auto hubs, growing market for electrical steel besides ideal location as regards to connectivity by road, rail and sea, Mr Ravi Singh said.

He said the service centre had a capacity to process 2.5 lakh tonnes of steel per annum and was backed by the company’s 4.6 million tonnes per annum steel plant at Hazira.

Mr. Ravi Singh said the company’s retail thrust would bring it more and more closer to customers. Currently the company has 67 steel hypermarts of which 20 were in south.

The facility includes a CR slitting lines (which convert wide coil into narrow coil), CR narrow cut-to-length lines, CR wide cut-to-length lines and HR wide cut-to-length lines. The centre would enable Essar to cater to even single sheet customer, provide small lot and customised deliveries for ready to use steel, he said.

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