Tata Steel's Haldia coke plant gets environmental nod for expansion

Unit would be used to meet coal requirements of Kalinganagar & Jamshedpur plants

Tata Steel has received environment clearance (EC) for expansion of its Haldia coke plant in West Bengal by ramping up unit capacity from existing 1.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 2.2 MTPA, making it the largest standalone coke plant in Asia.

The Haldia unit will be used in meeting coal requirements of the company's two other plants located in Kalinganagar and Jamshedpur.

"It (Haldia plant) is linked to Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar (units). For now, we have enough capacity. We have got the environment clearance. As the steelmaking capacity increases, we have the option to expand the plant now," said TV Narendran, managing director of Tata Steel, on the sidelines of the Odisha Annual Day meet organised by the CII.

Tata Steel had originally envisaged a six-million-tonne steel plant at Kalinganagar where capacity has been scaled up to three million tonnes in the first phase.

The steel major's greenfield steel complex at Kalinganagar has already surpassed the two million tonne mark in hot metal production.

The plant, which boasts of the largest operating blast furnace in the country with a capacity of 4,330 cubic metres, was commissioned on February 28 last year. By October, 2016, production capacity of the plant had reached 1 million MTPA.

Company plans to increase its steel output at Jamshedpur and Kalinga Nagar units from an existing capacity of 13 million tonnes (mt). It plans to ramp production by six million mt through brownfield expansion over the next few years.

Of the proposed expansion, one mt would be added to the 10 mt steel mill at Jamshedpur, while capacity at the newly commissioned Kalinganagar steel project would be ramped up by five mt.