Major units were erected in Rourkela Steel Plant as part of its expansion and modernisation and existing ones excelled in the their performance in 2013, RSP sources said today.
The most significant achievement of the year was commencement of operation at the new Blast Furnace-5 'Durga' which is the country's biggest operational blast furnace, a senior plant official said.
The new environment-friendly coke ovens battery number six and the new slab caster also have gone on stream, he said.
During 2013 RSP produced 2.47 mt of hot metal, 2.27 mt of crude steel and 2.24 mt of saleable steel, thereby registering the best ever performance for any calendar year, sources said.
In areas of sinter production, HR coil (Total), plate mill plates, galvanized sheets and CRNO coils also the plant registered growth of 2.8 per cent, 0.1 per cent, 1.6 per cent, 4.1 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.
In the first three quarters of 2013-14 too the plant has set new records. During April-December, RSP produced 1.86 mt of hot metal, 1.70 mt of crude steel and 1.66 mt of saleable steel, which are the best-since-inception figures.
RSP broke the previous record created 2007 by rolling out 3.65 lakh tonnes of plates, the sources said.
The performance in Q3 in general and December in particular, played a vital role in these record breaking show. In October-December, RSP recorded Best Q3 figures in all the three key production areas of hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel. In all the three areas Best December figures were also recorded.
The blast furnaces set new standards of excellence by producing 9731 tonnes of hot metal on December 11. Notably, this has been achieved from four blast furnaces including the new blast furnace number 5, as the blast furnace-1 has been taken down for upgradation since August, they said.
RSP CEO G S Prasad complimenting the employees for the peformance has asked them to make 2014 an even better year to wind up the entire projects activity during the year and stabilise all new units.
