Despite the massive earthquake which hit Japan on March 11, the Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel and Indian state-owned steel giant Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) are continuing their joint feasibility study for the setting up of a 1,000 megawatt gas-based power plant and a new steel plant at Jagdishpur in India's Uttar Pradesh state, within the context of the ongoing revival work at Jagdishpur SAIL Unit (JSU), the erstwhile plant of Malvika Steel.
Accordingly, the new plant, which is to be built as part of the second phase of JSU's development, would feature gas-based DRI (direct reduced iron-making) technology and use a electric arc furnace for steelmaking, producing value-added products.
Under the first phase of JSU's development, SAIL proposes to set up a warehouse with a capacity of 12,000 mt per year, a galvanized sheet corrugation unit with 13,000 mt capacity, a TMT bar mill with 15,000 mt capacity and a crash barrier manufacturing unit with 10,000 mt annual capacity. The warehouse and the galvanized sheet corrugation unit are in the final stages of completion and shall be ready for commissioning very soon, while the construction of other units is progressing as per schedule and shall be completed by November 2011, SAIL said.
The inputs of galvanized plain sheets, billets and hot rolled sheets for all these facilities will be sourced from the existing plants and units of SAIL. The finished products will be dispatched by road.
The steelmaking unit at Jagdishpur would involve an investment of about INR 100 billion ($2.2 billion), the SAIL statement said.
SAIL acquired the assets of erstwhile Malvika Steel at Jagdishpur in 2009.