On August 16, Austria-based plantmaker Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) announced that it has received an order from the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to supply an 150-tons RH vacuum degassing plant to the Rourkela Steel Works in the state of Orissa. The new plant will allow high-quality steel grades up to cold-rolled non-oriented types to be produced. The order is worth a total of some ten million euros. The RH plant is scheduled to come into operation by the middle of 2012.
Rourkela Steel Plant was the first integrated steel plant in the public sector in India and also the first in Asia to adopt the LD-converter technology. The new RH plant is part of SAIL's modernization and expansion program for its Rourkela location, which is intended to increase raw steel production to around 4.2 million metric tons per year. A third basic oxygen furnace (BOF) converter will be constructed in steel works no.2 with secondary steelmaking facilities - including the Siemens RH plant, and a continuous slab caster.