SAIL Refractory Unit (SRU) is a unit under the umbrella of SAIL having four plants spread over Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh engaged in the manufacture of almost the entire range of refractory products. The production capacity of the plants is dedicated to the different SAIL Steel plants.
The Head Office of SRU is located at Bokaro Steel City and the location of its different refractory plants are as under:
- SRU Bhandaridah Plant, P.O. Bhandaridah, Dist: Bokaro, Jharkhand.
- SRU Ranchi Road, P.O. Marar, Dist: Ramgarh, Jharkhand.
- SRU IFICO, P.O. Marar, Dist: Ramgarh, Jharkhand.
- SRU Bhilai, P.O. Maroda, Dist: Durg, Chhattisgarh.
Prior to its existence as a unit of SAIL, it was a public sector company under Ministry of Steel known as Bharat Refractories Limited.
The historical background of the company is that Bharat Refractories Limited was incorporatedas a subsidiary company of Bokaro Steel Limited in 1972 with only one plant namely Bhandaridah Refractories Plant.
Upon restructuring of Public Sector Iron & Steel Industries in 1978, two other plants namely Ranchi Road Refractories Plant at Ramgarh which was under erstwhile Hindustan Steel Limited and Bhilai Refractories Plant which was under construction as captive unit of Bhilai Steel Plant were also transferred to the company. India Firebricks & Insulation Company Limited at Ramgarh which was a subsidiary company of SAIL was also transferred as a subsidiary company which later became a unit of Bharat Refractories Limited on 1.10.1997.
The ministry of corporate affairs vide gazette notification dated 28th July 2009 approved the merger of Bharat Refractories Limited with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the company has acquired the status as a unit of SAIL.