SAIL's Rourkela Unit Posts Best Ever Hot Metal, Steel Figures

Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of the Maharatna Company SAIL, has registered the best ever production of hot metal, crude steel and saleable steel in the first three quarters (April-December period) of the financial year 2017-18. In the aforementioned period, the steel plant has made 2,474,893 tonnes of hot metal which is a growth of 12.5 per cent above the corresponding period last year. Besides, the steel plant also produced 2,386,957 tonnes of crude steel and 2,174,120 Tonnes of Saleable Steel in the first nine months of the fiscal, thereby registering growth of 14.8 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively.

In the April to December 2017 period, the coke ovens battery-6 recorded an average pushing of 88.5 per day which is its best performance since inception. Another new unit Sinter Plant-3 also clocked its highest performance by producing 2.42 lakh tonnes of Sinter in the above mentioned period, that increased the total sinter production to the level of 3,959,828 Tonnes - a rise of 4.2 per cent over the corresponding period last year. By producing 1,237,869 tonnes of HR Coils (Total) and 583,175 Tonnes of Plates respectively, the Hot Strip Mill and the New Plate Mill too have set new production benchmarks. Coke Rate, a very important techno-economic parameter that has substantial impact on the production cost of Hot Metal, too showed marked improvement over earlier years with 415 kg per Tonne of Hot Metal.

Ashwini Kumar, CEO, RSP who visited various units of the Plant on January 1, accompanied by other senior officers congratulated the employees on this success. "There is no boundary or full stop in improvement. We have achieved success in most areas but this is not enough. Perception and potential are two different things and we need to realise our true potential and get out of the comfort zone to reach higher peaks of excellence", he said.

The CEO also emphasised on putting in place robust systems, so as to make success a continuous and consistent process.