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Pilot facility for specialised steel likely in 2 years: Tata Steel executive |
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NEW DELHI: A pilot facility that is being planned to produce a specialised grade of steel used in transformers and generators may take about two years to come up, said a senior executive at Tata Steel, which is part of the Rs 500 crore public-private project.
Only a handful of companies globally manufacture the material - cold-rolled grain-oriented steel, or CRGO steel. According to industry executives, India spends about Rs 4,000 crore a year to import CRGO steel and its local production will help save foreign exchange and reduce the cost for Indian manufactures of transformers and generators.
"The time to set up the entire pilot facility is expected to be around two years. The development of CRGO will be completed within six months of completion of the pilot plant," said T Venugopalan, technical adviser to managing director at Tata Steel.
The plant will be housed in the Jamshedpur campus of the National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), which comes under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Tata Steel and Rashtriya Ispat may invest about Rs 125 crore each in the project, while the remaining funds would come from the steel ministry and NML, officials said.
A budget of Rs 150 crore has already been approved for the pilot project, a senior official at the steel ministry told ET. "The objective is to initiate research and development in the direction of indigenous production of CRGO steel ... We might also ask some foreign company to do some hand-holding."
The proposal for indigenous development had been on the table for over two years. Currently, pre-feasibility work is being carried out after which an engineering consultant would be awarded the contract for preparing the detailed project report. The consultant's report, which is expected in about four months, will then be submitted to all the partners for approval, Venugopalan said.
Tata Steel's board has given an in-principle approval to the project, but a formal approval may take about three to four months, he said. "After the grade is developed, commercialisation of the grade may take about 24-36 months, which may be the time needed to establish the cold-rolling complex suitable enough for the production of CRGO."
CRGO steel is silicon-based metal sheet used in the core of transformers and generators and has a complex manufacturing process. Globally, 14-15 companies, such as Japan's Nippon steel, JFE Steel, US-based AK Steel and Korean major Posco have the technology to manufacture the variety.
India requires about 250,000 tonnes of the commodity annually and the entire demand is met through imports. The country imports at an average price of $2,600 per tonne, said Anil Aggarwal, president of the Indian Transformer Manufacturers Association. Of the Rs 13,000 crore transformer industry, roughly a third of the cost is towards CRGO lamination, he said.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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