Tata Steel's total agglomerate production rises 1.03 mt

World's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer Tata Steel on Friday reported a 1.03 million tonnes (mt) rise in agglomerate production in fiscal 2015-16 over last year as well as higher efficiency in production.

Total agglomerate production was at 13.81 mt in 2015-16 compared to 12.78 mt in 2014-15, the company said in a statement.

The steel producer achieved lowest coke rate of 380 kg/thm in the fiscal against 443 kg/thm in last year in its blast furnaces while company's coal rate was 168 kg/thm compared to 126 kg/thm.

The company's hot metal production stood at 10.65 mt in the last fiscal while its crude steel production clocked to 9.96 million tonnes.

It produced 9.7 mt of saleable steel compared to 9.07 mt in 2014-15, the company said. Annual sales volume stood at 9.54 mt as against 8.75 mt in the last fiscal.

Its greenfield Kalinganagar plant in Odisha which is spread over 3,470 acres of land started hot metal production from last month and sinter production from last January.

"With continuous and consistent efforts in a challenging environment, Kalinganagar team has taken the project from construction phase to testing & commissioning phase during May 2015 to March 2016," the company said.

With the commission of the first phase of the Kalinganagar plant, the company will augment its total production in India to 13 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). The Odisha plant would produce three mtpa of steel in the first phase and later the capacity would be ramped up to six mtpa.