India’s Tata Steel Limited has commissioned a new blast furnace (BF) at its Kalinganagar steel mill in Odisha, taking its total template capacity to 8 million mt per year from 3 million mt per year, entailing an investment of $3.21 billion, a company statement said on Monday, September 23.
With the completion of the second phase of expansion at Kalinganagar, Tata Steel’s capacity across all mills in Odisha now stands at 14.6 million mt, while the capacity of its Jamshedpur steel mill in Jharkhand stands at 11 million mt per year, Tata Steel said.
The new blast furnace, with a volume of 5,870 cubic metres, is India’s largest, the company said. It was inaugurated by Tata Steel managing director and chief executive officer T V Narendran. “The commissioning of India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar is a momentous occasion for the steel industry, setting new benchmarks in capacity, technology, and sustainability,” he commented.
Key facilities in the Phase-II expansion at Kalinganagar also include a pellet plant, a coke plant and a cold rolling mill.