Tata Steel commissions ‘India’s largest blast furnace’ at Kalinganagar

Sub: Geo

Sec: Eco Geo

Context:

Tata Steel successfully commissioned India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district of Odisha as part of the Phase II plant expansion.
The new blast furnace, with a volume of 5,870 cubic metre, is equipped with state-of-the-art features for long campaign life and an eco-friendly design to optimise the steelmaking process.

Kalinganagar Steel Plant:

The plant is among India’s largest Greenfield projects.
Tata Steel plant in Kalinganagar is the first and only Indian plant to be inducted into the World Economic Forum’s 26-member Global Lighthouse Network.
The phase-II expansion at Kalinganagar will take the total capacity from 3 MTPA to 8 MTPA.

Steel sector in India:

The steel industry has been the backbone of the country’s industrial development.
Easy availability of low-cost manpower and presence of abundant iron ore reserves make India competitive in the global steel market.
India is home to fifth-highest reserves of iron ore in the world.
However, India heavily depends on imports for coking coal used in steel production. India imports about 85 per cent of its annual coking coal consumption of around 70 million metric tons.
India is the second largest producer of steel in the world, with an output of 32 MT of crude steel and finished steel production of 121.29 MT in FY23.
Per capita consumption of steel has risen from 59 kg in 2013-14 to 119 kg in 2022-23.
National Steel Policy 2017 projects crude steel capacity of 300 million tonnes (MT), production of 255 MT and seeks to increase per capita steel consumption to the level of 160 Kgs by 2030.
The policy also aims to increase domestic availability of washed coking coal so as to reduce import dependence on coking coal from about 85% to around 65% by 2030-31.