Indian Railways To Procure 15L Tonnes of Steel from SAIL in the Upcoming FY

In a major PSU to PSU work order deal, State-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is in talks with the Indian Railways for an order to supply about 15.5 lakh tonnes of rail in the next financial year, a company official said.

SAIL, under the steel ministry, is the country’s largest steel-making company and as per an agreement, it supplies rails to Indian Railways.

The Indian Railways had placed an order with SAIL for supply of 13.5 lakh tonne rails in the current financial year.

Till February 29, the company produced 11.65 lakh tonne rails, according to SAIL.

On asked about the Railways’ order for 2020-21, the official said the company expects an order of 15.5 lakh tonne rails in the next financial year for which it is in talks with the Railways.

A source said that generally, the Railways places its order by the last week of March or in the first week of April.

Replying to an e-mail query sent to SAIL, the company said that “it has not received the order for rails for the financial year 2020-21 from the Indian Railways yet. However, SAIL is geared up to fulfil any order, which will be placed by the Indian Railways”.

According to official data, in 2018-19, SAIL supplied 9.68 lakh tonnes of rails as against the demand of about 14 lakh tonnes. In the previous year, the public sector undertaking supplied 8.74 lakh tonnes as against the demand of 11.4 lakh tonnes. During 2016-17, SAIL supplied 6.20 lakh tonnes as against the Railways’ requirement of 10.05 lakh tonnes.