THE TATA IRON & STEEL COMPANY LTD

  The Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (TISCO) was set up in 1907 at Jamshedpur, Bihar. The first ingots were rolled in TISCO in 1911. The plant has captive collieries at Sijua, Jamadoba and West Bokaro and captive iron ore mines at Noamundi in Bihar and Joda in Orissa.

  The Company embarked on a 2 MT expansion programme which was completed in 1958. Subsequently, the first major modernisation programme was undertaken by the company in 1980 when outdated Duplex Process was replaced by a modern LD Shop alongwith Continuous Casting and other allied facilities. Immediately thereafter, the company started work on Modernisation Programme Phase-II. The principal facilities in this phase included the modern high speed Bar and Rod Mill of 300,000 tpa capacity, raw material Bedding and Blending Yard, 1.37 mtpa Sinter Plant, 2x30 MW Power Plant etc.

  TISCO completed its modernisation programme, phase III in October, 1994 which increased its saleable steel capacity to 2.7 mtpa. The major facilities under this programme includes 1 mtpa capacity Hot Strip Mill, two Slab Casters, 1 mtpa capacity New LD Shop, a half Coke Oven Battery, a 500 tpd capacity Oxygen Plant, three Lime Calcining Kilns, a New Captive Power Generation Plant of 30 MW capacity and expansion/modernisation of raw material facilities, transportation system and infrastructure.

  In addition, TISCO has commissioned a modern 1 mtpa capacity G Blast Furnace in October, 1992 which is operating at its rated capacity. The Hot Strip Mill was commissioned in March, 1993. The first Slab Caster was commissioned in October, 1993 and the second in August, 1994. The new LD Shop No.2 was commissioned in October, 1994.

 Modernisation Phase-IV

  TISCO has embarked on a Modernisation Programme Phase IV, at an estimated cost of Rs.2520 crore which includes: 

1. increase in capacity of hot metal from 3.28 to 3.8 mtpa;
2. increase in crude steel production capacity from 3.05 to 3.50 mtpa;
3. increase in saleable steel capacity from 2.70 to 3.30 mtpa;
4. expansion of LD-2 by providing a third vessel;
5. installation of third slab claster;
6. increase in capacity of Hot Strip Mill to 2 mtpa;
7. Setting up of a Bar Mill
8. Installation of a bloom caster
9. Modernisation of the Medium and Light structural Mill.

 With the above facilities 100% oxygen steel making and continuous casting willbe achieved resulting in improvement in yield, lower energy consumption and lower operating cost.

  With the additional facilities being commissioned in stages, Rolling Mills 1, Sheet mill and Narrow Strip Mill and part of SMS-3 have already been closed down. With progressive commissioning of facilities, Rolling Mill-2, Merchant Mils and remaining portion of SMS-3 shall be closed down soon.

  TISCO is installing a 1.2 Million TPA Cold Rolling Mill at Jamshedpur Works at a cost of Rs.1800 crores. The mill will have state-of-the-art facilities for pickling, rolling, annealing, galvanising packaging etc. alongwith associated facilities. The mill is scheduled to be commissioned in June, 2000.

 Production

  Production of Crude Steel, Saleable Steel & Finished Steel during the last three years is as follows:

(Unit : Metric Tonnes)

Performance Parametrs

(Unit : Metric Tonne)

 In addition to Tata Iron & Steel Co. Limited, there are large number of units mainly in private sector which are engaged in the production of various steel items like steel ingots/billets/blooms, hot rolled long products, hot rolled flat products, cold rolled flat products, coated products, wires etc.

 Structural changes continued to take place in private sector. While two major steel plants based on world class capacity & latest technologies (twin shell electric arc furnace & thin slag casting and Corex technology) were commissioned in Western & Southern India, inefficent & uncompetitive units continued to close down.

 Contribution of Private Sector

 Private sector is playing a dominant role in augmenting the steel availability in the country. Their contribution in finished steel production increased to 63.5% in 1997-98 as compared to 50.8% in 1992-93. In spite of difficult phase through which Indian steel industry is passing currently, their contribution has further increased to 67% during April-September, 1998.

 Status of various segment of steel industry in Private Sector is as under:

The above figures do not include production of steel by the Casting Units registered with erstwhile DGTD.

 Hot Rolled Long products Units

(In '000 tonnes)

of the Development Commissioner for Iron & Steel, during the last three years is given below:

(In '000 tonnes)

Production of hot rolled steel sheets/strips, which are reporting their production to the office of the Development Commissioner for Iron & Steel, during the last three years is given below:

(in '000 tonnes)

(In '000 tonnes)

(in '000 tonnes)

Production of Sponge Iron Units, which are reporting their production to the Office of the Development Commissioner for Iron & Steel during the last three years is given below:

(In '000 tonnes)

  Pig Iron is one of the basic raw materials required by the foundry and casting industry for manufacture of various types of castings for the engineering sector.

  Post liberalization, considerable interest has been shown by a large number of entrepreneurs mainly in the private sector for setting up mini blast furnaces for production of pig iron. The Financial Institutions/Commercial Banks have sanctioned financial assistance to 21 units with net pig iron available capacity of approx. 38.74 lakh tonnes.

  However, some units like, Malvika Steel Ltd., Jindal Vijayanagar Steel ltd. Are producing excess pig iron over and above the earmarked capacities since their steel making facilities are yet to be commissioned. Taking these and the capacity of the old lone unit i.e. of Kalinga Iron Works into consideration, the gross pig iron manufacturing capacity in the private/secondary sector as of December, 1998 is estimated at 3.6 million tonnes.

 A list of units manufacturing pig iron in the private/secondary sector is given below:

Actual production of pig iron in India during the last 5 years from the main producers and the units in the private/secondary sectors given below:

NB: The figures within brackets indicate the percentage contribution by the respective sectors.

Presently, the pig iron industry is passing through difficult times. Several blast furnance/units have reportedly been closed down. The industry has been adversely affected by the general economic slow down leading to stagnant demand and sales realisation, imposition of anti dumping duty on imported coke. Government has since reduced the anti dumping duty and also abolished the special customs duty on imported coke. These are expected to benefit the industry.

NEW STEEL PROJECTS

In the context of long term demand projection of steel, Government have adopted a two pronged strategy for increasing the steel production in the country in future.

• Through Modernisation and expansion of existing public sector steel plants in the country; and
• Encouraging creation of new steel capacities in the private sector.

SAIL has undertaken a massive modernisation programme in its plants at Durgapur, Rourkela and Bokaro. Similarly, TISCO have also taken up Phase IV modernisation.

After the announcement of New Industrial Policy in 1991 and various other policy initiatives taken by the Government, substantial interest has been shown by the private sector in setting up new steel plants. So far, 19 units with a total capacity of approx. 13 million tonnes (Saleable Steel) involving an investment of around Rs.25,000 crores have already been sanctioned by the All India Financial Institution. Of these, 6 units have already been commissioned. Others, some of which have already commissioned part manufacturing facilities are at various stages of implementation. Details of the units which have been commissioned or partly commissioned are given below: