India’s largest steel maker Steel Authority of India Limited and Kobe Steel of Japan signed a memorandum of agreement at Kobe’s headquarters in Tokyo for setting up a 0.5 million tonne per annum iron nugget making plant using Kobe’s patented ITmK3 technology at SAIL’s Alloy Steels Plant in Durgapur, West Bengal, India with an investment of INR 1,500 crore.
The agreement was signed by SAIL Chairman Mr CS Verma and Kobe Steel President & CEO Mr N Sato in the august presence of Mr Beni Prasad Verma, Union Minister for Steel.
As per the agreement, SAIL and Kobe Steel will be entitled to equal share of production from the plant for captive use.
A joint venture company ‘SAIL-Kobe Iron India Pvt. Ltd.’ in which SAIL and Kobe Steel hold equal equity, has already been incorporated.
For production of 0.5 million tonne of iron nuggets, the plant to be set up at SAIL’s Alloy Steels Plant in Durgapur will require around 0.8 million tonne of iron ore fines per annum. The Gua Iron Ore Mines of SAIL will supply 0.64 million tonne of fines from fresh arisings and 0.16 million tonne from dumped fines to meet this requirement. Output from the proposed plant will be shared between SAIL and Kobe Steel for captive use in their own plants/joint ventures.
Speaking on the occasion, Steel Minister Mr Beni Prasad Verma expressed his happiness at the joint venture of SAIL and Kobe Steel and was optimistic about more projects for the Indian steel industry with the help of Japanese technology. He said that “The ITmK3 technology will also utilise dump iron ore fines, disposal of which has become an environmental issue.”
Mr CS Verma remarked that “With this joint venture with Kobe, SAIL is going to achieve twin objectives of bringing in latest technology to the country, and also adopting environment friendly processes. This will be a milestone in the history of SAIL, setting new benchmarks of international collaboration in the field of iron-making. This is the first step of our collaboration with Kobe which could extend to other areas in future.”
Expressing his earnest wish that ITmk3 technology will contribute, through this joint venture project with SAIL, to further development of Indian Steel industry, Kobe Steel President Mr Sato agreed with SAIL Chairman stating “this ITmk3 JV project will become a golden opportunity for the both companies to explore other fields where we can collaborate for mutual benefit”.
SAIL and Kobe Steel had earlier signed a MoU on 30th March 2010 for conducting a joint feasibility study for exploring and commercialization of ITmk3 technology developed by Kobe for production of iron nuggets used for steel production. The pre-feasibility study prima facie establishes that the project is economically viable.
ITMk3 stands for ‘iron making technology mark three’. This is a proprietary technology of Kobe for producing a premium quality pig iron (nuggets). One of the features of ITmk3 process is that it can produce iron nuggets by utilizing relatively low-grade iron ore fines and non-coking coal as major raw materials and does not require either iron ore lump or blast furnace coke/coking-coal. Also, ITmK3 does not require coke oven plant or sinter plant for producing iron nuggets. CO2 emission is also less as compared to production through the blast furnace route, making the technology very environment-friendly.
Source - SAIL
(www.steelguru.com)
