The board of the state-owned Rastriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) has approved an investment of nearly Rs 5,000 crore for setting up of a seamless tube mill and installation of a new coke oven battery.
The board of RINL has given its nod for setting up of a seamless tube mill at an estimated cost of Rs 2,300 crore, a press release issued by the company said.
In addition, the board gave approval for installation of a new Coke Oven Battery-5 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,620 crore at Visakhapatnam steel plant.
RINL Chairman and Managing Director AP Choudhary told PTI that setting up of the seamless tube mill would be done either through a joint venture (JV) with a suitable partner or RINL would implement it on its own in case a JV did not materialise.
He said RINL was talking to BHEL -- a major consumer of tubes -- to participate in the project as a JV partner.
The seamless tube mill would have a capacity of 4 lakh tonne per annum and will be completed in 30 months from the date of order placement.
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The company would produce seamless tubes of 5.5" to 18" with a provision to produce even less than 5.5" tubes in the existing layout of the plant.
The proposed mill would have the option to produce above 18" tubes by creating additional facilities in future. Only up to 14" tubes are produced in the private sector at present.
Choudhary claimed that once the project to produce 18" and above seamless tubes is completed, RINL will become the only steel plant in India to produce such high dia tubes.
The seamless tube mill will cater to the needs of sectors like oil exploration & refining, gas, petro chemicals, power, fertilisers as well as engineering industries, he said.
He said RINL, being a shore-based plant, would have the advantage to export seamless tubes to neighbouring nations like Malaysia, Singapore and Korea.
The company's Board also gave approval for installation of a new Coke Oven Battery-5 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,620 crore at Visakhapatnam steel plant, where integrated commissioning of current expansion to 6.3 million tonne per annum at a cost of Rs 12,300 crore is in full swing and nearing completion, the statement said.
RINL which plans to become a 20 million tonne plant by 2020, at a single location, would build a new Coke Oven Battery-5 along with By-Product Plant and its associated facilities to meet metallurgical coke needs.
MN Dastur&Co, the consultant, has already made the Detailed Project Report.
The RINL CMD said along with growth and future expansion facilities, utmost care should be given to pollution control and effective environment management system.
He said out of Rs 2,620 crore envisaged for the new coke oven battery, around Rs 500 crore would be spent on environment management system.