ArcelorMittal is planning to set up a new iron and steel making facility at Paradip in Odisha. The facility will have a capacity of three to six million tpa.
This is part of the company’s long-term plan to increase Essar Steel’s annual steel making capacity from 5.6 million tpa to 12-15 million tpa in two stages, with fresh capital infusion of Rs 8,000 crore that will also raise the capacity at Essar’s Hazira facility to 12 million tpa.
The investment will be more than Rs 42,000 crore resolution plan for Essar Steel, which the company has agreed to acquire in October 2018.
In the first stage the company envisages to augment the capacity to 6.5 million tonne by 2019-20 on the back of efforts to rapidly restore current assets to reach their maximum potential.
This includes completion of ongoing projects that include a coke oven of 1.35 million tpa, a second sinter plant of 1.7 million tpa, third thin slab caster of one million tpa, Paradip pellet plant of six million tpa and Dabuna beneficiation plant of four million tpa.
In the second stage, ArcelorMittal intents to raise capacity to 8.5 million tonne by 2024.
The company had shared the outline of its resolution plan on 26 October 2018. The Essar’s Committee of Creditors (CoC) have approve its proposed acquisition and issued a letter of intent to ArcelorMittal. The resolution plan states ArcelorMittal expects to commission additional assets including a 1.2 million tpa coke oven, a four million tonne blast furnace and a 5.2 million tonne basic oxygen furnace to raise the capacity.
Also, to minimise production loss, the plan includes making the DRI modules electric arc furnace inactive when the new integrated plant assets are commissioned in 2021-22.