The country largest domestic steel producer, Steel Authority of India (SAIL), aims to complete modernisation and expansion of its IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur in West Bengal by December.
ISP is being upgraded and modernised at a total cost of over Rs 16,000 crore, after which it will produce 2.9 million tonnes (mt) of hot metal compared with its current capacity of 0.4 mt.
The upgradation includes a new seven-metre tall coke oven battery (COB) and a new blast furnace of 4,060 cubic metre volume with a top pressure recovery turbine. The SAIL Chairman, C. S. Verma, reviewed the progress of the project on Saturday. The company said units worth around Rs 5,000 crore will commence production. The new COB has commenced trial operation and was providing coke support to sister plants. It has supplied over two lakh tonnes of coke to them so far.
The new COB, with 74 ovens, has an annual production capacity of 0.882 mt. The company claimed that latest technologies in coke-making had been adopted in this new battery, which complied with global emission norms.
The other key unit to start hot trials is a sinter plant with production capacity of 3.8 mt a year. The sinter from this unit is being dispatched to sister units.
The wire rod mill has also commenced trial production. With an annual production capacity of 0.5 mt a year, this mill will produce cold-headed steel for fasteners, critical wire rope applications and special quality electrodes, the company said.
The product portfolio offers sizes ranging from 5.5 to 22 millimetres diameter in low, medium and high-carbon steel, including high-quality TMT grades.
This expansion project is part of the Rs 72,000-crore plan, which is expected to raise the plant’s hot metal production capacity — the benchmark for steel production capacity — to nearly 19.5 mt by March from the existing 17 mt.
This capacity expansion will lead to an over 50 per cent jump in iron ore requirement for the company to about 34 mt, as 1.6 mt ore is generally used to produce one mt of steel.