Driven by visionary and entrepreneurial leadership of Mrs Rita Singh, CMD and Mr J.K. Singh, Chairman (Emeritus), the management of Mesco Steel has successfully created an atmosphere of growth through harnessing the potential of human resources and efficient business management. Clearly Mesco Steel has entered a transformational phase in its growth path. A strong foundation for the future expansion has been firmly laid.
Riding on strong and consistent performance over the last four years, MISL has embarked on a major expansion at its Steel Plant at Kalinga Nagar, Odisha. The expansion is consistent with the company’s philosophy of becoming one of India’s major fully integrated steel companies. The current expansion plan is to take the finished steel capacity to 3.5 million tonnes in 2 phases.
MISL currently operates an iron ore mine and a pig iron plant in Odisha. The plant is spread across 237 hectares of land with sufficient space for the expansion. The strength of the expansion plan lies in the competitive advantages of the company. Its location provides close proximity to port, rail and road linkages. Captive source of iron ore from the mine in Roida and future potential of coking coal from its allocation of a coal block in Chindwara provides self sufficiency in key raw materials. Company has been allotted limestone and dolomite mines in Madhya Pradesh. Not to forget the fact there is a ready infrastructure in place due to a fully operational pig iron unit which precludes any issues related to land acquisition. The company is revamping its second blast furnace and raw material handling plant. These are to be completed in the first quarter of the current calendar year. A railway siding with wagon tipplers and carrying capacity of 6.2 million tonnes per annum has already been commissioned. This will be augmented to about 10 million tonnes. There is assured water supply from the Brahamani River to the plant. Most importantly Mesco group has earned the trust of local community over the years through community service in the areas of healthcare, education and infrastructural development.
In the first phase of expansion the production will be moved up the value chain to produce 1.2 million tonnes of finished steel per year. It will include installing new capacities for a 100 tonnes BOF based steel melt shop, 5-strand billet caster and a bar and rod mill. Auxiliary units planned are oxygen plant, lime plant and a pulverized coal injection unit for blast furnaces.
The second phase is designed to raise the capacity of finished steel to 3.5 million tonnes per year. One blast furnace of 3200 cubic meter, a sinter plant of 3.3 million tonnes per year, coke oven battery of 1.50 million tonnes per year, two BOF converters of 100 tonnes capacity each, another 5-strand billet caster and a slab caster have been planned to be set up as part of this expansion phase.
Process for obtaining forest and environment clearances for the coal block allotted to Mesco Steel in Chhindwara district, Madhya Pradesh has been put on a fast-track, with the submission of a revised application. A coal washery will be set up to meet about 30% of the coking coal requirement of the steel plant. Middlings from the coal washery which cannot be used for coke making will be utilized in power generation. A 120 MW power plant will be set up in two phases. Power can be wheeled to the plant in Odisha.
For maximizing the value from the blast furnace slag, a Portland slag cement grinding plant of 1.0 million tonnes per annum capacity is also being established at the site of the steel plant. Work for the first phase of 0.50 million tonnes has already started. In the first phase the cement plant will be able to create significant number of jobs while adding value to its operations. The plant will also be environment friendly by ensuring disposal of blast furnace slag on a closed cycle basis.
