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Ch.R.S. Sarma

Visakhapatnam, Nov. 17

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) is expanding its capacity from 3 million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes of liquid steel and the project is proceeding well, even though the cost has escalated from the original Rs 8,600 crore to Rs 12,000 crore, according to RINL officials.

The expansion is being taken up in two stages. The stage one comprises the installation of a new furnace and steel melt shop envisaged to produce 2.8 million tonnes of liquid steel along with the addition of a new wire rod mill to produce 0.93 million tonnes of finished product.

In the stage two, two finishing mills – special bar mill and structural mill – will be added to produce an additional 1.45 million tonnes of finished steel.

The stage one units are expected to be commissioned and stabilised by next September.

Under stage two, the new special bar mill is likely to be commissioned and stabilised by July 2011, and the new structural mill by December 2011.

According to RINL officials, orders worth Rs 11,478 crore have been placed for all major process packages including auxiliary facilities and the enabling works, consultancy services and spares. In the stage one, order for the sinter plant three has been placed on Tyazhpromexport, Russia, and McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd. It is valued at Rs 728.35 crore. The blast furnace three, valued at Rs 1,545.53 crore, is being constructed by Paulwurth-L&T consortium.

Steel melt shop-2 LD converters, valued at Rs 752.75 crore, are being built by a consortium of SMS Siemag, Germany; SMS India Ltd; Bridge and Roof, India; and BHEL. The continuous casting machines of steel melt shop-2 are being built by Danieli Co, Italy and MICCO (Modern India Construction Company) consortium.

The ladle furnaces and reheating furnaces of steel melt shop-2 are being built by SMS Mevac, of the UK, and SMS India. The order for wire rod mill-2 has been placed on Morgan (the US), Morgan India, Five Stein (France) and MECON. It is valued at Rs 622.36 crore.

As for the stage two units, the order for the special bar mill has been placed on a consortium of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies, Italy, Siemens VAI Metal Technologies Pvt Ltd, India, and Shriram EPC Ltd. India.

According to RINL officials, the steel plant created a record in the Indian steel industry for the highest structural erection (15,133 T) in a month during September this year. The piling work of the stage one is completed and for the stage two the work is going on according to schedule.

As for civil works, 85 per cent of concreting is finished for stage one, and similarly 90 per cent of structural fabrication is complete for stage one. Equipment erection for the blast furnace three is nearing completion. The trial run of raw material handling system has been completed.

Seventeen thousand workers are on the job for the expansion project.

More Stories on : New Projects | Steel | Andhra Pradesh

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