The board of directors of Steel Authority of India (Sail) has given an in principle approval to Rs 9,869 crore modernization and capacity expansion plan of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).The proposal envisages to more than double the hot metal production capacity of RSP from 2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) now to 4.5 MTPA.Similarly, the proposed modernisation program includes setting up of a fifth blast furnace with working volume of 4,060 cubic metres and productivity of 2.3 tonne per cubic metre per day.This apart, blast furnace - 1 of the steel plant will be reconstructed and upgraded to 1,250 cubic metres useful volume with high top pressure and coal dust injection facilities. In blast furnace - 4, coal dust injection system will be incorporated."With the approval of the modernisation and expansion plan RSP is all set to enter a new era of productivity, profitability and quality," BN Singh, managing director, RSP said."The objectives of expansion include increase in production of crude steel through state-of-the-art technology in order to meet the productivity level of international standards, improvement in quality of products, production of more value added products, reduction in energy consumption, improvement of environment, cut in cost of production and thereby increase in net sales realization."The package also envisages the setting up of a new 7 metre tall coke oven battery and a new sinter plant with 3.69 MTPA capacity. In order to augment the steel producing capacity, RSP is going to install a new 150 tonne converter and a new caster in its steel melting shop (SMS)-II. New RH-OB unit will be introduced in SMS-II to produce clean steel such as ultra low carbon steels.Two new matching ladle heating furnaces (LHFs) are also on the cards which will take the number of LHFs to three. One of the existing casters will also be upgraded. These augmentation measures will take the total crude steel capacity of RSP to the level of 4.2 MTPA.In view of the increasing demand for high end products, RSP proposes to install a new plate mill with a capacity of 1.8 MTPA that will roll out different grades of plates up to the width of 4,200 mm, meeting the stringent specific customer requirements.In order to further improve the quality of hot rolled strips the finishing mill train of hot strip mill (HSM) will be modernized to meet the customers' requirement and to improve the operation and quality of downstream units.An entirely new mill to produce 1,80,000 tonne of cold rolled non-oriented (CRNO) steel will be coming up under the package taking the total capacity of the superior grade steel to 2.55 lakh tonne per annum.To improve the quality of cold rolled (CR) products a new hydrochloric (HCL) pickiling line of 7 lakhs tonne per annum capacity, a new 6 high reversing mill along with downstream facilities for thinner gauges are being added in the cold rolling complex. As a result of these augmentation measures the total saleable steel production will reach the level of 3.9 MTPA.
