SAIL and NMDC to use Kobe technology to make steel
Steel Authority of India Ltd and National Mineral Development Corporation plan to use Kobe Steel’s patented technology for steelmaking under their joint ventures with the Japanese steelmaker.
Mr Ajay Dua former secretary ministry of industry and commerce and currently an advisor to a number of Japanese companies told DNA that both SAIL and NMDC, under their joint ventures with Kobe, are doing a feasibility study for using this technology in India.
He said that “The report is expected by November, when the final plans of setting up a steel unit based on this technology will be frozen.”
He said “Under ITMK3, instead of iron ore lumps, ore fines or dust is used for steel production. These fines, which get wasted as dust lying on the mouth of the mines, are heated to form iron nuggets. These nuggets have 97% Fe content and are heated to molten state and fed into electric arc furnaces for making steel.”
He said that “The major advantages of the process are that it uses iron ore fines, works on thermal coal instead of conventional coking coal and takes less land to set up a plant adding that the plants are modular in nature and require 20 acres to produce iron nuggets for a 0.5 million tonne unit.”
Mr Dua said that both SAIL and NMDC are upbeat about the technology and may look at taking the joint ventures forward beyond one steel unit.
Currently, SAIL has decided to set up a 0.5 million tonne steel mill using ITMK3 process at its Durgapur Alloy Plant and NMDC is scouting for land in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
India will be the second country after the US to use this unique technology, called Iron Making Third Generation Technology.
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