Rourkela Steel Plant

SAIL - Rourkela Steel Plant

Type	Public Sector Undertakings in India (Central Govt. Organization)
Traded as	NSE: SAIL
Industry	Steel
Founded	1955
Headquarters	Rourkela, India
Number of employees	17853 (March 2015)
Parent	Steel Authority of India Limited
Website	www.sail.co.in/rourkela-steel-plant/about-rourkela-steel-plant/

Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), in Rourkela, Odisha is the first integrated steel plant in the public sector in India. It was set up with West German^[1][2] collaboration with an installed capacity of 1 million tonnes in the 1960s. It is operated by Steel Authority of India.^[3]

German metallurgical firms Mannesmann, Krupp, Demag, Siemens and Austrian company Voestalpine^[4] provided machinery and consultancy to the plant among others. Rourkela Steel Plant was the first steel plant in Asia to use the LD (Linz-Donawitz) process of steel-making. Rourkela Steel Plant has an associated fertilizer plant that produces nitrogeneous fertilizers using ammonia feedstock (from its coke oven plant). On 3 February 1959, then president Rajendra Prasad inaugurated RSP's first blast furnace named 'Parvati' when the company was known as Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL). Subsequently, the RSP became a unit of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

Recently, a Rs 12,000-crore modernisation and expansion project at the Rourkela Steel Plant was dedicated to the Nation by Prime minister Narendra Modi on 1 April 2015.^[5] RSP presently has the capacity to produce 4.5 million tonnes of hot metal, 4.2 million tonnes of crude steel and 3.9 million tonnes of saleable steel.^[6]
The capacity of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) is expected to rise to 10.8 MTPA by 2025. ^[7] Ashwini Kumar took over as Chief Executive Officer of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) in 2016.

Upgrade and modernization

Rourkela Steel Plant

Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a public meeting after opening the 4.5 MT expansion of the Rourkela Steel Plant, April 2015.

The RSP has many firsts to its credit. It is the first plant in Asia to adopt the energy-efficient LD process of steel making and the first integrated steel plant of SAIL which adopted the cost-effective and quality-centered continuous casting route to process 100% of steel produced. The plant has also, for the first time in India, had adopted external desulphurisation of hot metal by calcium carbide injection process. RSP is one of the unique units under the SAIL umbrella with a wide variety of special purpose steels.

After RSP was set up with the help of German collaboration. Subsequently, its steel making capacity was enhanced to 2 million tonnes and added many units to the facility.

A pipe plant and special plate plant were set up during the 1970s for production of ERW pipes and steel plates for defense requirements. NSPCL,^[8] a joint venture company of NTPC Limited and SAIL, set up a captive power plant of 120 MW capacity to be self-sufficient.

Rourkela Steel Plant undertook a modernization program in 1988 with an outlay of INR 4500 crores. This revamped the process of supply of raw materials, new oxygen plant, improved techniques in blast furnaces, selling of dolomite plant, cast house, slag granulation plant, supply of raw materials sintering plants and coal handling plants among others. Following the modernization RSP became the first SAIL plant to have adopted continuous casting route for all its hot metal production. It is also the first Indian steel plant to have adopted external desulfurisation of hot metal by the calcium carbide injection process.^[9][10]

Steel Authority of India plans to invest for its capacity expansion in its major plants. So Rourkela Steel Plant on modernization and expansion project on process.

• 1964: The Fertilizer Plant was set up in the year 1964 with a view to utilizing the residue of the steel plant and the re-utilization of the chemicals.
• 1970: Pipe Plant and Special Plate Plant was set up for production of pipes and steel plates for defense requirements.
• 1988: The modernization of RSP was begun for producing qualitative materials and establishing its importance in the world market.
• 1998: The modernization program with an outlay of INR 4500 crores.
• 2010: RSP-SAIL plans for its capacity expansion in its existing 2.2 MT to 4.5 MT of production.
• 2013: Rourkela Steel Plant unveiled the country's largest blast furnace named "DURGA" having a useful volume of 4060 cubic metres with a production capacity of 8000 tons hot metal per day, thus increasing its production capacity from 2.2 MT to 4.5 MT.^[11][12][13]
• 2015:Rourkela Steel Plant has set up 1 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation unit inside the plant premises at a cost of Rs 6.68 crore,is expected to generate minimum 1.479 million units of solar energy per annum.

It is also installing other facilities for production of green energy. Two 5 KW rooftop solar PV power generation systems have already been installed and seven more such systems are in the pipeline.RSP is also in the process of setting up a 15 MW hydro power project on the downstream of Mandira Dam in collaboration with GEDCOL.

Product mix

SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant is a unique unit under SAIL with a wide variety of special purpose steels. The use of its products abound. Its HR coils find application in manufacturing LPG cylinders, automobiles, railway wagon chassis and other high-strength type steels. It is SAIL’s only plant that produces silicon steels for the power sector, high quality pipes for the oil and gas sector and tin plates for the packaging industry. Its wide and sophisticated product range includes flat, tubular and coated products. Special Plate Plant, Rourkela, is emerging as a major special steels centre for defence equipment. It produces armoured plate for the T-90 and Arjun (tank), and the BMP-2 infantry combat vehicle, which are built at Avadi and Medak respectively by the Ordnance Factory Board. Its annual capacity of 2,000 tonnes is being upped to 12,000 tonnes. The AB/A grade steel used in making India's first fully home made Aircraft carrier INS Vikrant (2013) were produced in Rourkela Steel Plant.^[14]

Products

• Plate mill plates
• HR plates
• HR coils
• ERW pipes
• SW pipes
• CR sheets and coils
• Galvanized sheets
• Electrolytic tin-plates silicon steel sheets
• Heavy and chequered plates
• Electrical steel (CRNO/CRGO)
• GP coils and sheets/GC sheets
• The fertilizer plant produces calcium ammonia nitrate (CAN) fertilizer marketed under the brand name "Sona" (gold).

Facilities

Major Units

Ore Bedding and Blending Plant- RSP’s Ore Bedding & Blending Plant (OBBP) has a base mix preparation system with on-ground bedding, blending and conveying facilities. Set up under the earlier modernisation programme to provide pre-mix feedstock to Sinter Plant-I & -II, the plant has an annual despatch capacity of 500,000 tonnes of material. The facilities in OBBP include major installations like wagon unloading (tipplers & track hoppers), iron ore crushing and screening system, raw material storage yard, rod mills and roll crushers for flux and coke crushing, proportioning bins and elaborate conveying systems.

Coke Oven- RSP has five 4.7-metre-tall coke oven batteries (COBs) that produce coke as the input for blast furnaces. The coke ovens are equipped with wagon tipplers, automatic handling and conveying facilities, coal blending provisions, coke wharfage crushing together with screening and conveying systems.

Sintering Plant- RSP’S Three sinter plants feed sinter to the blast furnaces with a combined capacity of 6.87 MT per annum. Sinter Plant-II is operating at more than its rated capacity since the year 2000. This has facilitated the increased usage of sinter in blast furnace burden.

Blast furnaces- The Five blast furnaces of RSP, with a combined capacity of 4.5 MTPA, produce hot molten metal for steel production. Recently commissioned Balst furnace-5 named as "Durga" is the largest Blast Furnace in India. Steel Melting Shops

SMS-I- Apart from a computerised LD process which has enhanced shop capability, the LA Vacuum Metallurgy Technique has been also adopted for secondary refining of steel. This facilitates production of special steels for application in electrical machines, pipe making, tin plate, boilers and auto chassis members. The shop was originally designed to produce ingots for conversion to slabs through the Slabbing Mill route. However, after the discontinuation of the ingot route, SMS-I produces slabs through casting machines.

SMS-II- Provided with the latest steel making, secondary refining (ladle furnace and argon rinsing) facilities and two single-strand slab casters to produce 1,355,000 tonnes of steel slabs annually, the shop is equipped with automation through three levels of computerised control, LD gas cleaning and recovery, power distribution system, water and utility services.

Plate Mill- RSP’s 3.1 meter wide, 4 high reversing mill is equipped with online thickness measurement facilities. Provision for inspection by customer’s nominees, online ultrasonic testing and checking ensure despatch of superior quality plates to customers. The Plate Mill also has a walking beam-type furnace with a capacity of 100 tonnes/hour for slab heating. The mill has a production capacity of 485,000 tonnes per annum.

Hot Strip Mill- The facilities of the 1.44 MT per annum mill has : Two new walking beam type reheating furnace (225 TPH) Roughing/sizing stand RoVo with automation Automated coil box Quick roll change system in Roughing Stand-1 and finishing mills Coil marking, sampling and conveying systems.

Cold Rolling Mill- Produces about 678,000 tonne of cold rolled sheets per annum, RSP’s Cold Rolling Mill has a modern 5-stand tandem mill and a 4-high 1700-mm reversing mill. The tandem mill is equipped with automatic gauge control, x-ray gauge, data logging and thyristorisation. Electrolytic Tinning Line The continuous electrolytic tinning line produces a shining tin-coated surface in a variety of coating thicknesses. The tinplate shearing lines are equipped with sensitive pinhole detectors and an automatic sorting system. Galvanising Lines Two continuous hot-dip galvanising lines are equipped with jet-coating facilities. There are 2 multi-roller-corrugating machines as well which produce corrugated sheets.

Silicon Steel Mills- This unit produces steel for the electrical industry through various operations carried out in sophisticated, continuous/semi-continuous processing lines and a 4-high reduction mill. Advanced process control and product testing facilities ensure product quality.

Pipe Plants- A highly sophisticated Spiral Welded (SW) Pipe Plant is equipped with submerged arc welding process and produces large diameter pipes. Hydrostatic pressure testing, ultrasonic testing and eddy current testing are some of the features which ensure quality control. The Electric Resistance Weld (ERW) Pipe Plant caters to the smaller diameter pipe consumers. This plant has been recently upgraded to enable it to produce API grade pipes. A 3-LPE Pipe Coating Plant has been commissioned in November 2008. This unit produces value-added pipes by providing 3-layers of Poly Ethylene coating on ERW and SW pipes of Rourkela Pipe Plants. Set up with technical knowhow from M/s Socotherm Spa, Italy, the unit is in strict compliance with the Pollution Control norms as per European standards.

Traffic & Raw Material- The Traffic & Raw Material Department deals with procurement and supply of raw materials to various user departments, internal movement of in-process and other material from one unit to another and dispatch of finished products in railway wagons to outside parties or SAIL warehouses. Raw materials play the most vital role in RSP’s production of 1.9 million tonnes (MT) of steel per annum. The annual input requirement of the plant includes 2.3 MT of coking coal, 1.5 MT of boiler coal, 1.8 MT of iron ore lumps, 1.5 MT of iron ore fines, 1.6 MT of fluxes and other materials like tin, zinc, aluminium and ferro-alloys. The department maintains 350 wagons, 40 locomotives and a network of 240 km rail tracks across the plant.

Quality Management

Total Quality Management (TQM) that was adopted in RSP since January 1992 today forms the core of all our business strategies. Today the entire works zone as well as Personnel and Steel Township have been certified to ISO 9001: 2008 QMS. Silicon Steel Mill and Environmental Engineering Department were the first departments to be certified with ISO 14001 Environment Management System (EMS) in the year 2000. Subsequently, SP-II, HSM, PM, SWPP, ERWPP, SPP and Steel Township were certified to ISO 14001:2004 EMS. RSP’s Steel Township is the first Township of SAIL to be certified for both ISO 9001 QMS and ISO 14001 EMS. Entire RSP has been certified to internationally acclaimed Occupational Health & Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS 18001: 2007). n order to have synergy and synchronization in implementation of various management systems, concept of Integrated Management System (IMS) has been initiated in RSP. An IMS Policy covering Quality, Environment, Occupational Health & Safety and Social Accountability of RSP has been introduced. RSP is the first unit in SAIL to adopt IMS policy.

Environment management

As a responsible corporate citizen, RSP has taken effective measures in the area of pollution control in by-product coke oven batteries, Battery No: 4 and 7m tall Battery No: 6. RSP has taken adequate steps to check emissions from coke ovens and has installed air-cooled self-sealing doors resulting in significant reduction in door emissions; doors were designed, manufactured and supplied by Simpex Castings Ltd, Bhilai India.

Almost all major units of the plant, including its Personnel Department and Steel Township, are certified to ISO:9001 standards. RSP’s Silicon Steel Mill, Sintering Plant II, Environment Engineering Department, Plate Mill, Hot Strip Mill, ERW and SW Pipe Plants, Special Plate Plant as well as Steel Township have been awarded ISO:14001 certification for Environment Management.

Awards

• Srishti Good Green Governance Award for 2010
• Global CSR Leadership & Excellence Awards in 2013
• CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2013^[15]
• Greentech Environment Gold Award
• National Energy Conservation Award (2nd Prize)
• Best Corporate Stall

References

• Rourkela Steel Plan at wikimapia

External links

• Rourkela Steel Plan, website
• SAIL Home page
• ‘Mini India’ Rourkela coming alive through flickers of images
• Rourkela - The Illustrated Journey Into The Life Of The City Around India's First Public Sector Steel Plant