The Hindu Business Line : Durgapur Steel draws up Rs 2,800-cr revamp plan

AS a part of the corporate expansion plan of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) has worked out a Rs 2,800-crore programme for modernisation and refurbishment of the whole unit. The investment will be spread over two phases and it will include several projects.

The focus is to expand the capacity of hot metal production from the existing level of 2 million tonnes per annum to 3.5 mt per annum by 2012. DSP is adding fresh capacity in the finishing mill section so that the share of semi-finished products will come down from the present level of 50 per cent to almost five per cent.

It will not opt for total abolition of semi-finished products as it will needs ingots for its wheel and axle mill.

The plant is setting up a bloom caster of 8 lakh tonnes per annum capacity work for which has already started. Orders have been placed for two new ladle furnaces.

According to Dr S.K. Bhattacharya, Managing Director of DSP, project reports have been prepared for setting up coal injection facilities in two out of the four blast furnaces and tar injection in one blast furnace.

Tar injection will be ready by December 2004. ``At present, we are operating only three blast furnaces but to increase our production to 3.5 mt we will have to operate all the four blast furnaces,'' Dr Bhattacharya told Business Line.

DSP will set up a new wire rod mill of seven lakh tonnes per annum capacity and upgrade the section mill to improve the product quality. Upgradation of the existing wheel and axle plant is also planned.

In the latter part of the modernisation programme, DSP wants to set up a medium structural mill of four lakh tonnes per annum capacity.

To improve on the average product quality, a desulphurisation unit will also be set up.

With the capacity expansion, the plant's oxygen requirement will double from the present level of 700 tonnes per day.

Fresh capacity of another 700 tonnes per day will be added by way of a BOO (build-own-operate) facility by a third party.

Though SAIL has divided its total expansion plan in two phases, including that of DSP, Dr Bhattacharya preferred not to make a similar division. ``Every project is important and I would not like to mark any individual project for any one phase. The total plan is a continuous programme,'' he said.

DSP, which turned around and started registering net profits in 2003-04 after three decades, is expecting a five per cent growth in sales during 2004-05.

Dr Bhattacharya and DSP officials preferred not to disclose any figures, but sources said the plant has already recorded Rs 200 crore net profit during the five months of this year.

SAIL to tender for expansion plan soon

STEEL Authroity of India Ltd (SAIL) will soon start floating tenders for the first phase of its expansion programme, under which its total capacity of hot metal production will be increased from 12 million tonnes per annum to 20 million tonnes per annum by 2012.

Sources said the steel giant had successfully presented its expansion programme to global equipment suppliers and project executors at a B2B seminar in Delhi last week.

The global players came up with several suggestions and, sources in SAIL said, those would be taken care of before floating the final tender. ``The global players have evinced keen interest in the expansion programme of SAIL,'' sources said.

SAIL's success in presenting the case will ensure that it gets the best technology at the right cost for its Rs 25,000 crore expansion plan.