SAIL buys Bharat Refractories

August 29, 2009: Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has taken over state-owned Bharat Refractories (BRL) and merged it with itself. The merger, effective
April 1, 2007, has also got approval corporate affairs ministry, a SAIL official said.

BRL makes high temperature-bearing refractory materials used in the inner linings of blast furnaces. "The captive in-house refractory-making capability (through the merger of BRL) would provide strategic advantage to SAIL at a time when the company is expanding its production capacity," SAIL chairman S.K. Roongta said.

The merger will help the country's largest steel producer utilise BRL's excess capacity for its present and future refractory needs. Already, the steelmaker consumes about 85-90% of BRL's output. For BRL, the merger will provide an opportunity to upgrade its technology and resource management, he said.

BRL, which produces an assorted variety of refractories used primarily in iron and steel making, has been reeling under losses for many years due to technological obsolescence, ageing plants and equipment and low capacity utilisation.

Source: The Economic Times