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JSW Steel Commissions India’s Largest Blast Furnace at Vijayanagar
02/20/2009 - JSW Steel commissions the third blast furnace at its Vijayanagar Works. The 4019-m3 blast furnace, India’s largest, was commissioned in 31 months.
JSW Steel has commissioned a new 4019-m3 Blast Furnace—India’s largest—at its Vijayanagar Works. The new blast furnace was commissioned in 31 months, one of the shortest durations for a project of this size.
The new blast furnace, JSW Steel’s third Blast Furnace at Vijayanagar Works, operates with high (2.5 bar) top pressure and high (1250°C) hot blast temperature to ensure maximum coal injection and energy saving. Built with the technology from Siemens VAI of UK, the furnace incorporates large, 40 MW blowers from Man-Turbo of Switzerland, top charging from Paul Wurth of Luxumborg, and critical refractories from Japan. The furnace also features modern environmental protection systems including cyclone & venturi scrubbers for gas cleaning, casthouse and stockhouse de-dusting systems, and slag granulation system. Waste energy is recovered through 11-MW top gas recovery turbines.
The new blast furnace was formally commissioned by P R Jindal in a ceremony attended by Sajjan Jindal, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, Y Siva Sagar Rao, Joint Managing Director & CEO of JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works, and several other dignitaries.
“This is a historical day not only for JSW Steel but also for the entire nation,” said Sajjan Jindal while addressing the gathering. “With the commissioning of the largest Blast Furnace, JSW Steel has become the leading steel producer. It is a major milestone in the history of the Company. In this economic slowdown, the commissioning of expansion project is a giant step towards making India proud.”
“Setting Standards is the way of life in JSW and we have again proved by setting up the largest Blast furnace in India in a record time,” added Y Siva Sagar Rao, Joint Managing Director & CEO of JSW Steel. “It is an honor for all of us to work in an organization which is growing with such a pace. The support and contribution of my young and dynamic team for setting a new milestone and to make Sajjan Jindal’s dream come true is invaluable. And I am pleased to say that the vision of the setting up first 10 MT plant in single location at Vijayanagar Works will again prove that ‘we are the trend setters’.”
JSW Steel had already commissioned a number of other units for this expansion project, including the material handling systems, coke ovens, sinter plant, steelmaking and continuous casting, wire rod mill, utilities, logistics and power supply units.
The facility’s slab casters, which can produce wider and thicker slabs (2200 mm wide x 300 mm thick), are the first of their kind in India. The expansion also includes long products including wire rods and rebars processed from billets cast on 8-strand billet casters.
JSW Steel is also in the advance stage of setting up a 5 million tonnes/year state-of-the-art hot strip mill, which is scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of fiscal 2009/10.
The company said its next phase of expansion, which will take the Vijayanagar Works’ total steelmaking capacity to 10 million tonnes/year, is also under implementation and is to be commissioned in fiscal 2010/11.
JSW Steel Ltd., belonging to JSW group, is part of the US $ 8 billion O P Jindal Group, one of the lowest-cost steel producers in the world. The group has diversified interests in Mining, Carbon Steel, Power, Industrial gases, Port facilities, Aluminum, Cement, and Information Technology. JSW Steel Limited is engaged in the manufacture of flat and long products, including hot and cold rolled coils, galvanized products, and auto-grade / white goods-grade CRCA Steel, Bars and Rods.
Incorporated in 1994, it has grown to US $ 3 billion in little over a decade. JSW Steel Limited has the largest galvanizing and color coating production capacity in the country and is the largest exporter of galvanized products with presence in over 74 countries across five continents.
