Essar Steel announced commissioning of its second unit of Conarc Furnace with a capacity of 2.5 million tonne per annum, taking total capacity of steel melt shop to 5 million tonnes.

With the commissioning of this furnace, Essar Steel has commissioned all steel making units, iron making and rolling units that are part of 10 million tonne expansion project barring a Corex unit which is slated for commissioning later this year.

This will be India’s largest flat steel facility at any single location and amongst the ten largest facilities in the world. It will also be one of the few steel facilities which are fully integrated and will produce the entire range of flat products. The total investment in Essar’s Hazira steel complex is INR 30,000 crores (USD 6 billion).

The CONARC Furnace will be fed with inputs from Blast Furnace with a capacity of 1.73 million tonne per annum (already commissioned), DRI with a capacity of 1.74 million tonne per annum (already commissioned) and 2 COREX units of 0.87 million tonne per annum of which one is already commissioned and the second unit is scheduled to commissioned in December this year.

Essar Steel has installed continuous caster of 1.45 million tonne per annum. In addition, Compact Strip Production mill of 2.5 million tonne per annum has also become fully operational. The CSP is capable of producing strips of thickness as low as 0.8 mm, which is the thinnest rolled steel in India. The products from the mill have diverse applications in General Engineering, Line Pipes for Hydrocarbon Industry, Welded Tubes, Electrical steel, automotive industry and LPG. The mill is capable of producing high strength steels including Dual Phase steel.

In addition, Essar has also invested in various supporting infrastructure at Hazira that include power plants of 1015 MW and a all weather port of 30 million tonne per annum at total investment of over INR 5000 crores