Rourkela Steel Plant Registers Record Production in FY 2024-25

Bhubaneswar, April 5 :The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has achieved a historic milestone by crossing the 4 million tonne (MT) production mark in all three key areas—Hot Metal, Crude Steel, and Saleable Steel—during the financial year 2024-25.

The plant wrapped up the fiscal year with exceptional performance across major production and techno-economic parameters. According to RSP sources, Blast Furnace-1 and Blast Furnace-5 registered their best-ever outputs, producing 10,04,736 tonnes and 31,32,316 tonnes of hot metal, respectively. Notably, Blast Furnace-5 achieved a capacity utilization of 113%, with a productivity rate of 2.57 tonnes per cubic metre per day (T/m³/day)—its highest since inception.

Sinter Plant-3 also set a new benchmark by producing 37,20,991 tonnes of sinter, surpassing its earlier record of 37,10,758 tonnes in 2021-22. Similarly, Caster-3 of Steel Melting Shop-2 recorded the highest-ever 16,33,774 tonnes of slab production, beating its previous best of 16,28,366 tonnes in 2023-24.

Contributing significantly to the plant’s achievements, the Hot Strip Mill-2 (HSM-2) rolled a record 26,22,704 tonnes of slabs, producing 25,56,717 tonnes of HR coils, improving upon the previous year’s record of 23,75,457 tonnes. The New Plate Mill also excelled by rolling 10,37,456 tonnes of slabs to produce a record 9,31,919 tonnes of plates.

The plant maintained an impeccable safety record with zero fatality days in the last fiscal year. On the techno-economic front, RSP reported its best-ever performance in several key indicators, including a specific energy consumption of 5.92 GCal/tonne of crude steel and specific water consumption of 2.98 cubic metres/tonne.

Both blast furnaces achieved a combined shop productivity of 2.31 T/m³/day, surpassing the previous best of 2.07 T/m³/day recorded in 2016-17. Additionally, the furnaces registered the lowest-ever coke rate of 391 kg/tonne of hot metal, a significant improvement from 415 kg/tonne in the previous fiscal, along with the best coal-to-hot-metal ratio of 0.896.

The year was further distinguished by national-level records. Among them was a Torpedo Ladle campaign life of 3009 heats, achieved in July 2024, and the highest-ever long sequence of 394 heats in Caster #3.

Congratulating the team, RSP Director In-Charge Alok Verma said, “We have stepped into the new fiscal with confidence and renewed determination, even amidst ongoing market challenges. Our goal now is to drive consistent, incremental improvements across operations which would certainly help us achieve our set targets in this fiscal.”