Essar Steel to double service centres

MUMBAI: Essar Steel, the Mumbai-based steelmaker that is expanding its capacity to 10 million tonnes, will almost double its service centres in India to make more customer-friendly steel that would increase sales in the fast-growing local market.

"We now have about 4 service centres in India, which will be taken up to 7 very soon," said CEO Malay Mukherjee. "We have so far focussed on expanding our capacity and would now like to expand the number of service centres in India and abroad," he told ET in a recent interview.

The Ruia family-backed Essar Steel is close to completing its 13,500-crore expansion program that will more than double its capacity to 10 million tonnes. Service centres are typically one-stop places located near large consuming markets where the company prepares products in line with market needs. This is done so that customers don't spend extra effort and cost in suiting factory steel for their needs.