Tata Steel's Kalinganagar unit crosses two mn tonnes in hot metal output

It took 133 days, at a production rate of 2.8 mn tonnes a year reach 2 mn tonnes from 1 mn

Tata Steel's greenfield steel complex at Odisha's Kalinganagar has surpassed the two million tonne mark in hot metal production. The steel behemoth has achieved this milestone in 133 days from the production level of one million tonne.

The plant, which boasts of the largest operating blast furnace in the country with 4,330 cubic metre capacity, was commissioned on February 28, 2016. The blast furnace achieved the first million tonne production of hot metal on October 9, 2016.

It took about 133 days to get to two million tonnes of output from one million. The second million tonne milestone was achieved at a production rate of 7,520 tonnes a day, or 2.8 million tonnes a year.

Subsequent to the commencement of commercial production in May 2016, the state-of-the-art steel plant has achieved several operational milestones. Besides, it has also started exports of HR (hot-rolled) coil and Tata Ferro-shots.  

In the third quarter results of FY17, Tata Steel had announced that its growth was also driven by Kalinganagar steel plant, which crossed 1.5 million tonnes of hot metal and one million tonne of hot-rolled coil production since commissioning in May 2016. The company's operating profit on a consolidated basis shot up 322.16 per cent to Rs 3,539 crore and margin expanded by 880 basis points to 12 per cent year-on-year, on the back of supportive realisations, strong growth in deliveries and ramp-up of the Kalinganagar plant.

Tata Steel had originally envisaged a six million tonne steel plant at Kalinganagar of which three million tonne capacity is coming up in the first phase.