Period between 1960-80

During the decade of the sixties, consideration was given to the expansion of Tata Steel in the private sector. In July 1961, Tata Steel obtained an industrial license for setting up alloy steel

Sinter plant: A new 1.37 mtpa sinter plant (SP2) to raise the total sinter production to 2.5 mtpa and thereby, increase sinter in blast furnaces to around 65%.

Coke ovens: A coke oven battery with 54 ovens using stamp charging technology to make coke of internationally acceptable quality was established. Stamp charging has given following advantages:

• Superior coke strength after reaction (CSR) compared with top charged coke, as well as higher bulk density.
• Higher yield of sized coke for the blast furnaces.
• Improved blast furnace productivity because of usage of coke with better room temperature and high temperature properties.

Waste recovery: 1 Mtpa Waste recycling plant to recover metallics from the plant was established

Ancillary technologies: The main technology improvement in phase II was the introduction of coal injection in blast furnaces. The limited reserves of coking coal in India have always spurred Indian iron makers to strive for lower coke rates. Tata Steel commissioned a coal injection unit in 1991 for its F blast furnace. The system developed by Kloeckner Sstahl Technik (KST) was adopted on the success of coal injection in F blast furnace; the technology was extended to G blast furnace as a part of modernisation phase III and thereafter, also incorporated in D blast furnace.

Modernization phase III
The success of modernization phases I and II and the need to enter the flat product market, provided the necessary impetus to embark on the crucial third phase of modernization. Keeping in view the international and domestic Steel scenario, it was felt necessary for Tata Steel to set up an internationally competitive flat products complex. Apart from a one million tonne hot strip mill, a new one million tonne G blast furnace was also installed. The landmarks during this phase were:

Ironmaking: To augment steelmaking capacity, a corresponding increase in hot metal production was necessary. Hence, a highly automated blast furnace of 1 mtpa capacity, called the G blast furnace, was commissioned in November 1992.

Steelmaking: A new LD shop 2 with two 130t capacity LD vessels, with one out of two operating at any given moment, was commissioned.

New Cold Rolling Mill at Tata Steel

In addition to modernization, Tata Steel has defined its vision for the next millennium and has embarked on an unprecedented expansion in flat products. As a first step, taking into account the doubling of the capacity of the HSM, a 1.2 million tonnes cold rolling complex has been commissioned in Jamshedpur towards the middle of the year 2000. Some of the salient features of this new development are highlighted.

Facilities in the cold rolling complex

Internationally, the technology of cold rolling has developed to an extremely sophisticated level. This progress has been augmented by the work on technology by equipment suppliers around the world, focused on further improving the processes to produce better products, thereby propelling cold rolled strips to higher levels of quality and cost competitiveness.

The major facilities include a pickling-cum-tandem cold rolling mill, an annealing facility, and galvanizing lines.