Steel minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh stressed on making state-run steel maker SAIL's subsidiaries Salem and VISL Bhadrawati competitive, reported PTI. Singh was reviewing the working of SAIL's marketing setup in southern region and SAIL joint venture with Kerala government -- SAIL-SCL Kerala Ltd, SAIL said in a statement. "Minister stressed the need of making units of SAIL like Salem Steel Plant and VISL Bhadravati competitive.

                                     He added that action plans have to be taken to make the joint venture units like SAIL-SCL Kerala Ltd viable," it added. There is good scope of consumption of steel in the state of Kerala as well as in the other parts of the country. SAIL and Kerala government should work together to promote steel consumption, Singh suggested as per the media reports.

The Minister also recommended that a committee of representatives from Steel Ministry, Kerala government and SAIL be formed to find ways and means of improving capacity utilisation of the JV. Kerala's Additional Chief Secretary Paul Antony pointed out that sales volume of TMT from the JV will improve as the state government is in the process of ensuring support for the JV.Get live News Updates visit us at Ripples Advisory or One Missed Call on @98-27-80-80-90.