Indian Steel Industry

Indian steel industry is organised in three sectors, namely integrated plant, mini steel plant based on EAF, and induction furnace.

Integrated steel plant sector is the biggest producer of steel. The steel production is based entirely on hot metal. The route consists of Blast furnace-converter-secondary steelmaking-continuous casting-and rolling. Integrated steel plants are both in public and private sector.  In the public sector  Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) are the main producers of steel. SAIL has plants located at Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Bokaro, Burnpur. Salem and Bhadravati. RINL has plant at Vishakhapattnem.  The total capacity of steel production is 18-19 million tons per annum.  In the private sector Essar, ISPAT, Jindal and TISCO are the main producers with the total capacity of 12 million tons per annum.

Mini steel plant sector mainly produces steel through electric arc furnace using scrap, pig iron and sponge iron. Several mini steel plants are dispersed in the country to produce mild steel and alloy steel both for long and flat products. This sector depends entirely on availability of scrap and sponge  iron. In many of these units, mini blast furnace hot metal is also used in the charge.

Many producers have installed high frequency induction furnaces (IF) to produce mild steel and alloy and special steels. Induction furnace based steel producers have modernised by using refining equipments as well as continuous casting units. Refining by ladle arc furnace is also in use. The EAF holders have also installed induction melting furnaces. Induction furnaces consume less power, and there is no expenditure on electrode. Limitation is only that induction furnace based plants are not suitable for bulk steel production. The combined EAF + IF sector had contributed 50% in the total steel production in the year 2005-06

Steel production in India

India produced 55.4 million tonnes of finished carbon steel in 2006-07 which has marginally increased to 59.02 million tonnes in 2008-09 as per the report given by the Joint Plant Committee. Crude steel production was registered at 51.5 million tonnes during April-December 2010 in the country as per the report of the joint Plant Committee. The production is expected to be nearly 110 million tonnes by 2012-13. Steel production in India has increased by a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4% during the period 2005-06 to 2009-10. The crude steel performance accounted for 31% of the total crude steel production in the country during 2009-10, contributed mainly by the strong trends in the growth of the electric route of steelmaking, particularly the induction furnace route. Going forward, growth in India is projected to be higher than the world average, as per capita consumption of steel in India, at around 40 kg, is well below the world average (150kg) and that of developed countries (400 kg).