Bhubaneswar: Tata Steel’s Kalinganagar steel plant in Odisha will become 8 million tonne per annum(mtpa) by next year.

The private sector steel behemoth is ramping up its capacity of Kalinganagar from the present 3 mtpa to 8 mtpa.

Tata Steel sources told India Whispers that the the second phase of the plant is set to be commissioned in 2020-21. With this the capacity of the plant would go up to 8 mtpa from 3 mtpa at present. The sources said that the second phase expansion will set up a cold rolling mill facility at Kalinganagar.

Tata Steel is raising a debt of $600 million to largely finance the Kalinganagar ramp up project.

Tata Steel executive direct and chief financial officer, Kaushik Chatterjee, recenetly said at Mumbai, ” We are in the process of raising the debt which would be largely used to finance the second phase expansion of Kalinganagar plant.”

Steel prices fell by about Rs 2000 per tonne in Indian market in the Q1 of the current fiscal. In the international market too the prices are going down. However, the input cost is increasing squeezing the spread(difference between sales price of finished product and the cost of raw materials) for the steel makers. There is a sharp increase in iron ore prices due to supply disruption and to add to it coking coal cost is going up.