During the first decade of the 21st century, India’s slab production capacity grew moderately. Since 2010, the country has embarked on large-scale projects, each of which has driven slab capacity expansion. At the beginning of the 21st century, India’s domestic slab production capacity was about 29 million tons per year, and with the successive commissioning of new continuous casters and CSP plants, India’s domestic slab production capacity has doubled in 20 years.
Back in May 2006, Essar Steel (now ArcelorMittal-Nihon Steel India, AM/NSIndia) equipped its electric arc furnace smelting plant with 180 The No. 2 continuous casting machine with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year can produce slabs with a length of 220mm, a thickness of 260mm and a width of 2000mm. In October 2007, Jingdal Steel and Energy Corporation (JSPL) built a 1 million ton/year continuous caster at the Raigarh steel plant in Chhattisgarh, which can produce thicknesses of 215mm, 250mm and 280mm, slabs with a width of 1500-2600mm.
In 2008, two CSP thin slab casting and rolling plants of Bhushan Power and Steel Company (BPSL, now part of Jingdler Southwest Steel) were commissioned, with a combined capacity of approximately 1.8 million tonnes/year and a minimum slab thickness of It is 1.5mm and the width is 800-1300mm.
In 2010, the state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) officially commissioned a 300,000 t/y continuous caster at Salem Steel Plant (SSP) in Tamil Nadu as part of an electric furnace smelting workshop. In the second quarter of 2010, the converter workshop of the Vijayanagar Steel Works of Jindal Southwest Steel Company in Karnataka State completed the construction of continuous casting machines No. 5-6. The design capacity of these two equipments is 310. 10,000 tons/year, mainly producing slabs with thickness of 220mm, 260mm and 300mm and width of 1000-2200mm.
The substantial increase in slab production capacity in India in 2011 was largely attributable to Essar Steel, which increased its slab casting capacity to 6 million t/y with the commissioning of its 1.45 million t/y caster No. 3. In addition, the company is equipped with a set of 3.5 million tons/year CSP equipment.
In August 2012, Tata Steel started producing thin slabs and hot rolled coils at its 2.5 million t/y CSP plant. In March 2013, Bhushan Steel (now Tata Steel BSL) boosted slab production capacity in India. The company’s Orissa plant’s No. 2 steelmaking workshop has two continuous casters put into operation, with a total production capacity of 3 million tons per year, producing slabs with a thickness of 230mm and a width of 1680mm.
In August 2013, JSPL’s No. 1 continuous casting machine with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons was put into operation, producing slabs with thicknesses of 200mm, 260mm and 300mm and widths of 1000-2300mm, mainly low carbon steel and alloy steel. At the same time, SAIL’s Rourkela steel plant’s 1.5m t/y caster No. 3 was commissioned, doubling the plant’s slab capacity.
In 2015, Bhushan Iron and Steel Company No. 3 and No. 4 continuous casters started production, and were used in conjunction with the No. 3 converter smelting workshop. The units are designed to have a capacity of 3 million tonnes/year and produce slabs 230mm thick and 1680mm wide.
At the beginning of 2016, Jingdler Southwest Steel Company equipped the existing steelmaking workshop of Vijayawada Steel Works with a 1.4 million t/y six-strand continuous caster. In March 2016, the converter workshop of Tata Steel’s Kalinganagar steelworks installed a 3Mt/yr continuous caster producing slabs 230mm thick and 1000-2000mm wide.
October 2021 saw another notable increase in slab capacity. Jingdal Southwest Steel’s Dolvi plant in Maharashtra has put into operation two continuous casters with a combined capacity of 4.5 million tonnes/year for the production of slabs 220-260mm thick and 900-1650mm wide.
Indian steel producers are currently carrying out a series of technological transformation projects to expand continuous slab casting capacity. In 2022, the CSP plant of the National Mining Development Corporation (NMDC) in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, is planned to be put into operation, with a designed capacity of 2.9 million tons/year, and the final product is a hot-rolled sheet with a thickness of 1-16mm and a width of 900- 1650mm.
Jingdler Southwest Steel plans to commission a new steelmaking plant in 2024, which is under construction as part of a project to add 5 million tons of steelmaking capacity at the Vijayawada steel plant. The steelmaking workshop will have two continuous casters that will produce slabs with thicknesses of 220-260mm and widths of 900-1650mm in a wide range of steel grades. In addition, the Steel Authority of India may build a new continuous casting machine at the Lorkra Steel Plant, which is designed to have a capacity of 1 million tons per year, with a slab thickness of 210-250mm and a width of 1050-1850mm.
Relevant data show that in the past 20 years, India’s domestic slab production capacity has increased by more than 30 million tons, and this growth will continue in the next few years, which may bring nearly 9 million tons of new production capacity.