Tata Steel's Kalinganagar blast furnace to be largest in India

2016-03-12

Mar. 11, 2016 -The blast furnace at Tata Steel's new greenfield plant at Kalinganagar in Odisha is tipped to be the country's largest. 

The furnace with a production capacity of 4330 cubic metres will produce 3.2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) of hot metal per annum. 

Prior to Kalinganagar,' the blast furnace at the Steel Authority of India's new and expanded IISCo. Steel Plant at Burnpur , Kalyani', commissioned on December 1, 2014 was the country's largest with a capacity of at 4160 cubic metres. It was followed by Durga, the new blast furnace at SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant, with a capacity of 4060 cubic metres which was commissioned in August 2013. 

The company is aiming at an integrated commissioning of all units by September this year, Rajiv Kumar, vice president (Operations-KPO) Kalinganagar Operations said during a meeting with media persons. The total investment would be around Rs.25,000 crore in the first phase of the project. 

With the first phase in Kalinganagar plant being commissioned, Tata SteelBSE -0.57 % 's total domestic production is poised to go up to 13 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The new plant would produce three mtpa of steel in the first phase and later the capacity would be ramped up to six mtpa. However, he did wish to speculate on the time frame for scaling up the capacity. 

Apart from the large blast furnace, Kalinganagar also has the first twin wagon tippler allowing unloading at the rate of 3,500 tonnes per hour. It will be the first such installation for bulk material handling in the country. 

At the Steel Melting Shop with a 4.1mtpa capacity, the country's largest LD converter of 310 tonne will be in operation. The plant's Hot Strip Mill presently having a 3.5 mtpa capacity can go up to 4 million tonne.