The Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) will get third party inspection done of finished steel plates before its dispatch from the plant, officials informed.
The Steel Authority of India ltd (SAIl) is already in the process of developing a ‘Quality Assurance and Quality Control Facility’ under its 7.0 Million Tonnes capacity expansion project at the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), they informed.
Notably, the expansion and modernisation of Bhilai Steel Plant is underway to take steel manufacturing capacity from 4 MTPA to 7 MTPA.
Notably, BSP which had been taking several key steps during the past years to preserve the environment has already eliminated use of CFC-11 by replacing it by li-Br based Chiller unit, way before the target date of January 1, 2010.
Procurement of Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC) has been stopped and use of Trichloroethylene has been started, officials stated.
Two projects under the aegis of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have been implemented in BSP for the elimination of use of CTC. Procurement of Halon based fire extinguishers have also been replaced by FM 200 based units.
All industrial package air conditioners using CFC-12 were also replaced in a phased manner by units using CFC free refrigerant. The plant has brought down the use of ozone depleting substances to 3.05 tonnes in 2014 from about 10 tonnes a decade ago.
The ozone depleting potential, a true measure of consumption of Ozone depleting substances, has also been reduced to 0.167 tonnes by BSP in 2014, which is amongst lowest in industries.
Under the ongoing Expansion/Modernization projects, BSP has taken due care to fully comply with the Montreal protocol in procurement and installation of, Air conditioning/ refrigeration units. It is also ensured that, the fire protective equipment being procured is also fully complying with the Montreal protocol.
Notably, BSP has won the prestigious Prime Minister’s Trophy for a record 11 times out of the 21 times it has been awarded.
SAIl is also co-ordinating the construction of Rail line from DaIlirajhara to Rowghat covering a distance of 95 km with Indian Railways in Chhattisgarh.
The project for doubling of Railway line between Kirandul and Jagdalpur in Chhatisgarh’s insurgency ridden Bastar region is expected to be complete by January 2019, official sources informed.
Notably, NMDC ltd -- the country’s largest iron ore producer and exporter had also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union Ministry of Railways on December 21, 2012 and the aforesaid project would be helpful in significantly augmenting evacuation capacity of NMDC’s Bailadila Sector mines by rail from the existing 28 MTPA to 40 MTPA of iron ore.
NMDC had deposited an amount of Rs 150 crores with East Coast Railway and the expenditure incurred as on March 31, 2015 was Rs 132.00 crore, sources informed.
For execution of the project, the Railways has divided the 150 km length of doubling work into three Sections namely, Jagdalpur to Silakjori 45.50 km, Kirandul to Gidam 52.23 km and Silakjori to Gidam 52.73 km.
Notably, the Rs 2000 crore Rowghat to Jagdalpur railway line would also pass through heavily insurgency infested Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts of Bastar division in Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The project is a joint venture between Chhattisgarh government, NMDC, SAIl and IRCON.
Continuing to operate well above the rated capacity in all major areas of production, Bhilai Steel Plant, the flagship unit of the public sector SAIl, has concluded the financial year 2016-17 with an annual production of 5.04 Million Tonnes of Hot Metal, 4.74 Million Tonnes of Crude Steel and 4.00 Million Tonnes of Saleable Steel.
The Plant would be achieving a capacity utilization of 107.4 percent in Hot Metal, 120.9 percent in Crude Steel and 127.1 percent in Saleable Steel, respectively.
The four finishing mills of SAIl’s Bhilai Steel Plant- the Plate Mill, Rail and Structure Mill, Merchant Mill and Wire Rod Mill- have registered record-breaking and encouraging performances in production of special quality value added steel grades in financial year 2016-17.
The Plant would be recording best ever loading of around 1,49,700 Tnnnes of 130 metre and 260 metre long rails, surpassing previous best of 1,41,670 Tonnes recorded in corresponding period of 2014-15.
It is worth mentioning that the Rail and Structure Mill has surpassed its ABP target of 8 lakh tonnes for the year by producing 8,11,939 tonnes of Rails till March 30, 2017.
The Plant has also exported almost double the volume of steel in April to February period of fiscal year 2016-17 as compared to corresponding period of last fiscal year. The Plant registered total export loading of 79,833 tonnes of steel in the April to February period of last fiscal year. This included 52,645 tonnes of plates, 3,800 tonnes of billets and 2,700 tonnes of wire rods. In the April to Feb period of 2015-16, the Plant had exported 40,433 tonnes of steel including 22170 of plates.
Notably, SAIl is also the largest and main supplier of steel for constructing country’s longest bridge ‘Dhola-Sadiya’ which is built on river lohit in Assam, a company press release informed.
SAIl has supplied around 90% or around 30,000 tonnes of steel, including TMT, Structurals and Plates, for this bridge which will connect the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The product mix offered by SAIl was one of the major criteria for selection of the company for this prestigious project.
The construction of this 9.15-km-long bridge began in 2011 under public private partnership. This bridge is 3.55 kilometers longer than Mumbai’s Bandra-Worli Sea link, making it the longest bridge in India.
SAIl is supplying steel for several vital projects in country’s north-eastern region.
Apart from the Dhola-Sadiya bridge, SAIl steel has also been used for constructing the Bogibeel Rail-cum-Road bridge, several power plants including 750 MW power plant of NTPC & 600 MW Kameng Hydro-electric project, Trans Arunachal highway etc. which all are very important projects for the region.
SAIl has identified specific focus areas in the North-eastern region for increasing its presence and market share and has adopted a structured approach to widen its footprints. Supplying steel to remote areas of NE, tapping the high potential rural sector of the region, exploring the government’s thrust to improve the nation’s connectivity with North-east - all prominently figure on the company’s priority list.
Recently SAIl has appointed a General Manager to look after steel marketing in this area.
Becoming part of projects of such national importance and value is also a testimony to nation’s trust on SAIl steel.
SAIl is now in a position to offer better and more value-added steel for such projects as it is almost completing its balance modernization.
Notably, pursuing a clear agenda of growth, the Ministry of Steel has had many firsts to its credit. In the year 2015, India became the third largest producer of steel in the world. Recent data shows that India is now looking at positioning itself as the second largest in the very near future.
In the last three years, there has been capacity addition at a steady CAGR of about 7%. There has also been an improvement in the overall capacity utilization.
Another strategic push for the steel industry has been the policy to provide preference to Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP) in government procurements. This will not just provide a level playing field to the domestic steel industry but will also promote development of domestic steel Industry. Besides, it will also reduce the inclination to use, low
quality and low cost imported steel in Government funded projects.