Foundation laid for Tata Steel's project
The Hindu — January 1, 2008

Tata Steel on Monday took a major step towards brownfield expansion of its works at Jamshedpur by performing the groundbreaking ceremony for expanding the capacity to 10 million tonnes annually.

Once completed, the project will make Jamshedpur the single largest unit and one of the most efficient steel plants in the world.

The project is expected to be completed by December 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, said, "Though there are many challenges involved in this project, I am confident that the project will be managed efficiently. In December 2010, when the project will be completed, Jamshedpur will become the single largest unit and one of the most modern plants in the world. With the completion of this project, we will be able to fulfil the promises made to our customers even better."

Raghunath Pandey, President-Tata Workers Union, said, "We have always been with the company in its progress and prosperity. We must ensure that the progress of this project takes place in the safest manner."

As part of the project, a number of facilities will be developed. These include augmentation of mines, setting up a six million tonnes per annum pellet plant, and expansion of Hooghly Metcoke (coming up at Haldia in West Bengal) from 1.2 million tonnes to 1.6 million tonnes. Increased raw material handling facilities will also have to be set up along with the upgradation of the existing A-E furnaces. A few other facilities, including the augmentation of utilities and water system and the power generation system would also have to be set up, the release said.

With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with about 82,700 employees across four continents.

To fulfil its objective of growth and globalisation, the five million tones per annum Jamshedpur works is gearing up to double its capacity by December 2010. The company is making steady progress on its three greenfield steel projects in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, to add 23 million tonnes to its present capacity. It also plans to set up steel making capacities in Vietnam, Iran and Bangladesh.