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Tata Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for New I Blast Furnace

11/04/2008 - Tata Steel holds groundbreaking ceremony at the Jamshedpur Works for construction of a new blast furnace, helping to push the plant toward its target capacity of 10 million tonnes hot metal per year.

Tata Steel held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, November 3, at the Jamshedpur Works for the construction of its new 'I' Blast Furnace.
 
The new blast furnace is to be designed, supplied, erected and commissioned by a consortium consisting of PW Italia, L&T and PW India. It will have a planned production of 3.05 million tonnes of hot metal per year, representing about 29% of the plant’s total 10.55-million-tonne annual hot metal production.
 
Environmentally friendly and more fuel efficient than predecessor blast furnaces, the new blast furnace will also feature a green cover on all three sides.
 
The groundbreaking ceremony was conducted by Tata Steel Managing Director B. Muthuraman.
 
"It is indeed an achievement that we are at the ground breaking ceremony of the I Blast Furnace,” said B Muthuraman, while addressing the gathering. “This is a project about productivity and a project aimed at making Jamshedpur, the best steel-producing site. I would like to congratulate everybody who has worked towards making this function possible."
 
Raghunath Pandey, President of the Tata Workers Union, also added his congratulations to Tata Steel during the ceremony. "With this groundbreaking ceremony, Tata Steel has shown that it will continue to take up new challenges and will continue to look forward and grow, in spite of adverse external conditions," added Raghunath Pandey.
 
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by senior officials of Tata Steel, L&T and Paul Wurth along with committee members of the Tata Workers Union.  
 
The new blast furnace supports Tata Steel's steady progress toward increasing the annual capacity of the Jamshedpur Works to 10 million tonnes, which is a part of the company's Brownfield Expansion project with an estimated cost of Rs. 14,000 crores. Tata Steel commissioned its H Blast Furnace some 6 months ago (May 2008) as part of the Brownfield expansion.
 
The new Blast Furnace I is expected to be commissioned by November 2010.