RSP steel output up 24% in April-May

This is the best ever performance of the plant since inception for any month

Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), produced 430,000 tonne of salable steel in April-May period, 24 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last fiscal.

In this period, the plant produced 537,062 tonne of hot metal, registering a growth of 36.3 per cent over last year. Crude steel output was 480,198 tonne in the period, up 30 per cent compared with previous year’s output, data from the steel producer said.

“The plant has posted its best ever performance for the first two months of any fiscal by leveraging the performance of the new units,” RSP said in a release.

During May, it produced 270,052 tonne of hot metal and 220,021 tonne saleable steel which is the best ever performance of the plant since its inception for any month. The new blast furnace-5 played an important role in boosting hot metal production, it added.

Among finished products, RSP produced 285,298 tonne of HR (hot rolled) coil, 90,008 tonnes of steel sheet , 41,307 tonne of hot rolled plates, 22,857 tonne of cold rolled sheets/coils and 11,359 tonnes of CRNO (cold rolled non-oriented ) coils in the two-month period.

Last month, the plant had to face raw material supply problem for a brief period due to a Supreme Court order on illegal mining, but later it was solved due to intervention of the state government.

The Supreme Court in an interim order, on May 16, had asked to halt mining operation at 26 mines of the state, citing that automatic renewal of mines lease after 20 years of first renewal was illegal. It had also said the Odisha government must take steps to expedite renewal process of all the mines, especially of captive mines of SAIL and Tata Steel within six months from the order.

On May 29, the state government allowed eight iron ore mines to resume operation including one mine of state run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), invoking special provision mentioned in the Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Act, nearly two weeks after it had directed them to halt production there.

The mines which were benefited by the decision of state government were four iron ore mines of Tata Steel (Joda East, Joda West, Katamati and Bamebari) , three mines of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and one iron ore mine of OMC.