Bhubaneswar, Sep 10 (IANS): The Rourkela Steel Plant in Odisha, a unit of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has sold 2,800 tonnes of steel slabs to a South Korean company for shipping them to Thailand, a company official said Tuesday.

The plant in the steel city of Rourkela, about 500 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Monday despatched 129 slabs by rail to Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh from where these will be shipped to Thailand, the official said.

The rake which is carrying the slabs consists of 43 wagons. Each wagon is carrying three slabs. Each slab weighs approximately 21.45 tonnes, he said.

This was the first rake of slabs of export quality made by the new continuous slab caster-3 of the steel melting shop-II of the steel plant.

The new slab caster was inaugurated by SAIL chairman C.S. Verma in August.

The latest export order has been prepared for South Korea's Daewoo International Corporation. This order will lead to generation of foreign exchange to the tune of $1.2 million, he added.