On August 22, Indian steelmaker Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) commissioned the second ladle furnace of the steel melting shop-II (SMS_II) of its Rourkela steel plant, Orissa, India.
Inaugurated by company chairman C.S. Verma and produced by Danieli India Limited, the 150 mt ladle furnace is part of an INR 1.97 billion ($41.9 million) scheme for ‘Simultaneous Blowing in Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) Convertors of Steel Melting Shop-II' of the plant.
The new ladle furnace will enhance the production capacity of SMS-II from the existing 1.68 million mt per year to 1.85 million mt per year of liquid steel, thereby increasing production of slabs by 0.17 million mt per year.
Total investments envisaged for different facilities as a part of the plant's modernization and expansion is INR 110.81 billion ($2.36 billion). The scheme was conceived under SAIL's plan to increase its hot metal production capacity to a level of 23.5 million mt by 2012-13.
The oxygen plant-III is the unit to be commissioned next in the framework of the modernization and expansion plan.