4th India Steel SummitBy

Sri A. P. Chaudhary, Director(Projects)

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited

Technical infusion for quality & efficiency

Presentation on

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Indian steel industry which came up in late 50’s and 60’s, adopted technologies prevailing at that point of time in collaboration with major technology suppliers from Europe, Russia, USA and other countries. 

Adoption of technology varied plant wise widely in the country; some of the capacity build up through LD process and partly with open hearth/twin hearth process.

Even in mines, while thrust was given on new technology like Benificiation for usage of low grade fines majority ignored mainly due to abundance availability.

New technologies……………! Iron Making Today….

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When we are talking about technology infusion,  it may not be right mentioning that Indian steel industry has been much behind  globally.  Infact,

RSP was one of the first steel plant in Asia to adopt LD process in late 50’s itself.

Corex was another new technology brought by JSW much earlier. 

However, pace of replacement of   technology which became old and obsolete consuming very high energy viz., open hearth, ingot casting and several others, remained slow. Some Steel Plants are still continuing with this process for part of their production.  One of the major reasons in bridging technology gap in existing units has been the need of high capital investment and also cautious approach, steel market being cyclic in nature. 

New technologies……………! Technology infusion in IndiaToday….

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Adoption of newer technology has become most

essential for quality and efficiency including other

very important aspects like

-          To conserve and optimise uses of scarce raw materials. 

-    To save environment.

-    To produce newer and cleaner varieties of steel to dovetail with the requirement of modern era as it is witnessing several inventions and innovations. 

-    To reduce the cost of production. 

New technologies……………! Need of the Hour….

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Import of almost 100% of CRGO grade silicon steel meant for manufacturing of electrical equipments.  Trials are made for decades for getting the knowhow, but not succeeded so far. 

  Several high grades of steel for auto sector, gas & oil

sector- mainly higher API grade & Alloy steels  still being imported, though technology for such production is now available in India with many steel producers.

Newer products of higher grade would be needed to meet the growing requirement of important sector like nuclear power etc.

New technologies……………! Need of the Hour….

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Alternative Hot Metal production technologies which do not need coking coal and can use iron ore fines/micro fines (no need for Coke Plants, Pellatization Plants or Sinter Plants.

Move towards technologies which inherently need less space and emit less CO2 - Environ friendly.

Two areas where major developments are going on:

Altenative route for Hot Metal production

Casting – Rolling technology

New technologies……………! Direction…….

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Raw Materials-    Beneficiation 

-    Palletisation

Iron Making -   COREX - Siemens VAI, Austria – 1.5 Mtpa in 1980’s.

-   FINEX – POSCO, Korea– 1.5 Mtpa in 2007.

-   Hi-Smelt – Rio Tinto-NUCOR– Mitsubishi - 0.8 Mt in 2005.

-   ITMK-3 – Kobe, Japan – 25000 tpa.

Steel Making-    Higher level of automation 

New technologies: Widely Talked about….

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Casting & Rolling

-    CSP (Continuous Strip Mill) 

-    ESP (Endless Strip Mill) - Siemens VAI, Austria along with Arvedi, Italy

Special Steel Mill

-   Silicon Steel mill

-   New generation Tube Mill

New technologies: Widely Talked about….

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Normally when we talk about new technologies we tend to focus mainly on main processes.However, in a steel plant ~40-45 % of the project cost is spent towards civil & structural works including auxiliary facilities like, oxygen plants, lime & dolomite calcining plants, power plant, water facilities, machine shops, etc. Supporting facilities not only comprises substantial % of the project cost but also consume a major chunk of total energy.Utmost important is required to adopt state of the art technologies for these auxiliary facilities also, like GTCC (gas turbine combustion cycle) for captive power plants, heat recovery type of calcining shaft kilns, energy efficient oxygen plants, efficient drives for auxiliary units etcAs is the usual global practice some of these facilities can be outsourced to specialists in these areas to get latest technology faster.

New Technologies - Issues

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Technological gaps in execution of the Project Order Placement Mechanism

To come out of traditional way of tendering

o Modern tools like E-tendering, Reverse auction should help

o Tender discussions by Video conference

o Need to get approvals, sanctions etc., by Video Conference

To give way for Modern methods of construction

o Design and Approval of drawings by electronic media

o Provision should be kept while tendering for usage of modern machinery like Piling, Boring and Automatic welding equipment etc.,

o Usage of prefabricated slabs, Deck sheeting to avoid time delays in scaffolding, Mechanized Lift for Plastering & Painting of outside walls of buildings and for Cladding works

Usage of Modern tools of Project Monitoring system

New technologies……………! Where we stand?

For efficiently installing steel plants, besides adopting appropriate process technologies, it is also important to focus on the entire chain from concept to commissioning to reduce the total project time.

To reduce gestation periods, post commissioning, especially for new technologies, it is also of utmost importance that the learning curves are sharp and the rated capacities are achieved in the shortest possible time. Usually in Indian steel plants we take a long time in achieving the rated capacities.

New technologies……………! Approach towards execution of the Project

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Objective: + 200 Mtpa production capacity build up

To be self reliant to reasonably comfortable level, it is a must for the steel industry to develop R&D centres for

Process development

Detailed design & engg for both green field and brown field projects

Continuous process optimization to have incremental improvement in operational/ maintenance aspects and also as cost reduction excersize.

New technologies……………! R&D…….

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It is a must for the steel industry to focus on

Sharing of technological developments

amongst steel within the country

Why to send our engineers for training abroad when most of the technology is available with one or the other Indian steel industry ?

New technologies……………! To infuse the new one….

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New Technologies - Summerising

Equal importance should be given for infusion of technology

-    To adopt newer process like Finex, Hi smelt, ITMK 3, etc. Which are in my opinion very close to its commercially utilisation.  Adoption of such technology may become long term viable and best option for the country to use available low grades of raw materials.

-    Give thrust in adopting newer technology for associated auxiliary facilities with main units.

-     To enforce adoption of newer way of implementation of projects to avoid time & cost over run.

-   Innovative way of post production activities like marketing including customer services etc.  

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Thank you1515