NEW DELHI: Tata Steel on Monday announced setting up of a new blast furnace at its Jamshedpur works unit as part of the Rs 14,000-crore brownfield expansion to augment its production capacity to 10 million tons in over two years.
The 'I-blast furnace', which would have a capacity to make 3.05 million tons of hot metal per annum, is likely to be commissioned by November 2010, the company said.
"It is a project about productivity and a project aimed at making Jamshedpur, the best steel producing site," Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman said.
The new blast furnace will be designed, supplied, erected and commissioned by a consortium of companies, including PW Italia, L&T, PW India and PW Luxembourg.
World's sixth largest steel producer Tata Steel has undertaken brownfield expansion to enhance its production capacity to 10.5 million tons by 2010.
At present, the company's Jamshedpur plant has a capacity to produce about 6.8 million tons of steel annually. Around six months back, the steel major had blown in one other blast furnace (H) of 1.8 million tonne capacity.
In addition to increasing the capacity of its exisiting unit, the steel major is in process of setting up greenfield projects in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhatisgarh.
While in Jharkhand it proposes to invest about Rs 42,000 crore for a 12 million tonne integrated steel plant, in Orissa it intends to pump in nearly Rs 22,000 crore for a six million tonne unit.
The steel major also plans to invest Rs 18,000 crore for setting up a 5 million tonne steel plant in Chhatisgarh.
For all the proposed greenfield projects, the company claims it is in the process of acquiring land.
