Work has begun for erecting furnace shell of the blast furnace-8 at SAIL’s
Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) at Bhilai in Durg district of Chhattisgarh.
The new blast furnace being installed is a part of the BSP’s seven million tonne (MT) modernisation and expansion programme. The furnace will be the biggest blast furnace having useful volume of 4,060 m3 and capacity of producing 8,030 tonne of hot metal per day and 2.8 million tpa. The contract for installation of BF-8 had been awarded to a consortium of Paul Wurth, Italia (PWIT), Paul Wurth, India (PWIN) & L&T. The furnace shell will be 45 mtrs high and will have 23 special steel rings (made of Material Grade Q 345) of thickness varying from 40 mm to 120 mm. Material for the shell up to 5th ring has been supplied by Paul Wurth, Italia. Internal diameter of ring is 16.65 mtrs and total weight of the shell will be around 700 metric tonne.
Meanwhile, SAIL’s blast furnace at the
Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) in Orissa will be operational by end-July 2012. SAIL had taken up expansion and modernisation work in the RSP at an investment of Rs 12,000 crore. The present capacity of the RSP will be raised from 2.5 million tpa to 4.5 million tpa and subsequently to 5 million tpa.