ArcelorMittal is planning to build a new iron and steel making facility at Paradip of 3-6 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity.

This is part of the Luxembourg-headquartered company’s long-term plan to raise Essar Steel’s annual steelmaking capacity to 12-15 mtpa from 5.6 mtpa in two stages, with fresh capital infusion of Rs 8,000 crore that will also augment capacity at Essar’s Hazira facility to 12 mtpa. The investment will be over and above the Rs 42,000 crore resolution plan for Essar Steel, which it had agreed to acquire last month.

In the first stage the plan envisages raising the capacity to 6.5 mt by 2019-20 on the back of efforts to rapidly restore current assets to reach their maximum potential. This essentially revolves around completion of ongoing capex projects that include a coke oven (1.35 mtpa), a second sinter plant (1.7 mtpa), third thin slab caster (1 mtpa), Paradip pellet plant (6 mtpa) and Dabuna beneficiation plant (4mtpa). It would also include an environmental management plant and infusion of best practices in raw material sourcing, plant operations, sales and product mix, people management, and health and safety.

In the second stage, ArcelorMittal plans to expand capacity to 8.5 mt by 2024. While the company had shared the outline of its resolution plan on October 26, on the day Essar’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) voted to approve its proposed acquisition and issued a Letter of Intent to it, the resolution plan specifically states ArcelorMittal hopes to commission additional assets including a 1.2 mtpa coke oven, a 4 mt blast furnace and a 5.2 mt basic oxygen furnace to raise the capacity.It also wants to use land potentially available at Paradip to add the new iron and steel making unit. Also, to minimise production loss, the plan involves making the DRI modules electric arc furnace inactive when the new integrated plant assets are commissioned in 2021-22.

 

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

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