Bhilai steel plant hits 1 million tonnes plate production mark in FY23

Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), the Chhattisgarh-based entity of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), has produced and dispatched more than 1 million tonnes (MT) of plates so far in the current financial year.

SAIL-Bhilai’s plate mill, which has capacity of 1.2 MT per annum, rolls out wide and heavy plates of different grades for a variety of applications. They are for the defence sector and used in infrastructure development projects.

“The 1-MT mark in cumulative production was crossed on January 21 while 1 MT in cumulative despatches of plates in the current financial year was crossed on January 23, 2023,” BSP said in a statement.

So far in FY23, the plate mill has produced 10,13,300 tonnes of finished plates and dispatched 10,00,595 tonnes of plates, the statement said.

It added that cumulative finished plate production so far in FY23 includes 86,488 tonnes of boiler quality plates that are used for manufacture of pressure vessels and other applications.

During the period from April 1, 2022, to January 23, 2023, the mill has produced 177,528 tonnes of high tensile plates, both for home sales and exports.

The mill exported 15,360 tonnes of plates, including 9,031 tonnes of high tensile plates during the same period.

Production of DMR 249 A naval grade plates during the period has been 1,557 tonnes.

Production of other special steel grade plates during April 2022 to January 23, 2023 was 107,577 tonnes.

The mill also produced 619,974 tonnes of mild grade steel plates during the period.

The officials said the production of 1 MT of finished plates and

shipment of 1 MT of plates — according to customer requirements — has been achieved in less than 10 months of FY23.

It registered a growth of over 25 per cent compared to the output recorded during the same period of the previous financial year.

The surge in demand resulted in enhancing the production, they added.

Besides Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), the Indian Railways and two private infrastructure companies had placed bulk orders.

BSP has also supplied special naval grade plates for aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and other warships of the Indian Navy.