"ESL, which enhanced its capacity from 2 to 2.2 mt capacity last year is planning to enhance its capacity further to 2.4 mt per annum this fiscal by re-engineering process," company director (operations) John C Parker told reporters here during a plant visit on Sunday.

Asked how the debt-strapped company would raise money, Parker said "though we are not yet out of the woods as far as finances are concerned, the economic revival, of late, in Asian and European countries and rising international steel prices hold a rosy picture for the company's future."International steel prices had firmed up from $190 per tonne in the first quarter of 1999-2000 to $330 in the fourth quarter, he added.

ESL had failed to meet its revised commitments to floating rate notes (FRN) holders since July last as the domestic institutions had backed out of providing Financial support to redeem the FRNs, Parker said.

A major share of the company's investment would go into improving the processes of the hot briquetted iron (HBI), steel melting plant (SMP) and directly reduced iron (DRI) units, he said.

The Hazira plant, with three HBI processing modules, had already started work on one more module, which was expected to take the total capacity to 3.2 mt in two years, he added.

Essar Steel had recently bagged a $5.2 million supply contract from China for supply of high quality Corten grade steel, Parker said.

The company had stopped work on the south jetty, the second one it was planning to build, and decided to utilise the deep water port facilities to be developed by global oil major Shell near here, he said. The company had started selling its by-products like slag, and excess produce from the lime and oxygen plants, and these fetched it about Rs 15 crore during 1999-2000, he said.