Durgapur Steel eyes 3mn.t. capacity

Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has signed an agreement with Durgapur Projects Limited (DPL) for conversion of its imported coking coal into blast furnace-grade metallurgical coke.

DSP is enhancing production capacity to 3 million tonnes by 2112. To improve production and productivity, it is going in for continuous casting route for crude steel.

To achieve this, order for a bloom caster of 0.85 million tonnes annual capacity has been placed on a consortium led by Daneili Centro (of Italy). The total project will cost over Rs 271 crore.

Orders for a ladle furnace and reheating furnace have also been placed.

DSP is reviving and upgrading its blast furnace I (BF-I) to raise hot metal production to about 3.5 million tonnes.

Tar injection in BF-II and coal dust injection in BF-III and BF-IV expected to be completed in a year.

DSP plans to put up a bar and rod-making capacity of 1.4 million tonnes and medium structural mill of 0.4 million tonnes capacity besides putting up another billet caster for continuous casting of crude steel.

The revamping of its merchant mill, as well as augmentation of raw material handling, modification of the existing billet caster and balancing facilities for BOF, are also in the pipeline.

An oxygen plant of 500TPD capacity on BOO basis is also envisaged to meet enhanced oxygen demand. All these investments would raise capacity for finished steel to 2.63 million tonnes out of projected saleable steel production of 2.8 million tonnes.

The coke conversion agreement was signed by S K Bhattacharyya, managing director of DSP, K K Khanna, director (technical) of SAIL, and S P Dutta, managing director of DPL, a DSP release said today.

The agreement would provide synergy between DSP and DPL.

DSP, through SAIL's operations directorate, would provide 25,000-30,000 tonnes of coking coal per month in the ratio 65 per cent hard and 35 per cent soft.

Supplies would be made by rail on cost-free basis to DPL, for conversion into BF-grade metallurgical coke, including all undersize coke fractions.

DPL will supply the entire quantity of BF coke to designated SAIL plants by rail. SAIL will also hold a buffer stock of coking coal equal to around 10 days production at DPL.

DSP will pay conversion free of Rs 1,950 per tonne of gross coke on dry basis to DPL. Taxes, duties and other charges like freight shall be paid by DSP.

DSP needed the coke for its blast furnaces as its existing plant cannot supply the entire demand. With proper coke supply, DSP could produce over two million tonnes of hot metal in a year, said sources.

DSP made a net profit of Rs 81 crore in the last fiscal. It has already crossed the figure in the first quarter of the current fiscal itself.