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Tata Steel Blows in Largest Blast Furnace at Jamshedpur

06/03/2008 - Tata Steel officially restarts India’s largest blast furnace during a blowing in ceremony at the company’s Jamshedpur steelworks.

Tata Steel officially restarted India’s largest blast furnace during a blowing in ceremony at the company’s Jamshedpur steelworks.
 
Tata Steel’s commissioning of the ‘H’ Blast Furnace at Jamshedpur marked completion of the most important milestone in the company’s growth plan to increase the Jamshedpur Works’ capacity to 7 million tonnes per year in Phase I and to 10 million tonnes per year in Phase II. The blast furnace was designed, supplied, erected and commissioned by a consortium consisting of PW Italia, L&T, PW India, and PW Luxembourg.
 
“It is a historical day not only for Tata Steel but also for the nation,” said B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel. “I would like to thank Mr. R. S. Pandey [Steel Secretary, Government of India], who came to Jamshedpur to be a part of this momentous day.
 
“The blow-in of H Blast Furnace is a major milestone and another giant step in making India prosperous,” continued Muthuraman. “It is India’s largest blast furnace and it is an effort by Tata Steel to add tremendously to the nation-building process. Steel is the backbone of the country and we want to ensure that India does not miss the bus. I would like to thank the entire team for completing the project in record time.”
 
R. S. Pandey, Secretary for Steel, Government of India and the chief guest for the ceremony, commented, “It is the largest blast furnace that has been completed in 25 months. It will work efficiently and pave the path for the construction of more blast furnaces. I would like to extend my congratulations to the entire team for achieving this remarkable feat. I get the reassurance that Tata Steel will continue to play a pioneering role in the process of steel making”
 
 ‘H’ Blast Furnace will produce over 7200 tonnes of hot metal per day with a coke rate of 380 kg/tonne and coal injection rate of 160 kg/tonne. Newly equipped with all modern features, the furnace has two flat casthouses with four tapholes. Cold blast will be made available by electrically driven blowers. Energy will be recovered from the blast furnace off-gas through an expansion turbine for recovery as electrical power. Waste heat from the stoves’ exhaust will be recovered to save on the fuel rate of the furnace. Slag from the blast furnace will be supplied for cement manufacturing in granulated form.
 
The project was completed in 25 months from groundbreaking, which the company claims is the shortest time ever taken for construction of such a large furnace anywhere in the world. Commissioning of the 3800-m3 blast furnace at Jamshedpur is taking place in the same year that Tata Steel is celebrating its Centenary, marking a “moment of great pride not only for Tata Steel, but also the nation as a whole”.
 
The company said the second-phase expansion of Jamshedpur Steel works to 10 million tonnes per year is to be completed by December 2010.
 
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel in 2006 on a combined basis is the world’s sixth largest steel producer in terms of actual crude steel production, with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700 employees across the four continents.