India’s largest Blast Furnace, ‘H’ Blast Furnace at Tata Steel, was blown in today, 31st May, 2008 formally by Mr R S Pandey, Steel Secretary, Government of India at a grand function at Tata Steel Works in Jamshedpur. He was accompanied by Mr B Muthuraman, Managing Director Tata Steel, Mr H M Nerurkar, Chief Operating Officer, Tata Steel, Mr. R.P. Singh, Vice President (Engineering and Projects) , Mr Basevi, Managing Director, Paul Wurth (PW) Italia and Mr K G Hariharan, Senior Executive Vice President, L&T.

Tata Steel, the first and largest Private Sector Steel Company in India has embarked on growth plan to increase its Jamshedpur Works Capacity to 7 million tonnes per annum in Phase I and to 10 MT in Phase II. ‘H’ Blast Furnace marks the completion of the most important milestone in that journey. It has been designed, supplied, erected and commissioned by a consortium consisting of PW Italia, L&T, PW India, and PW Luxembourg.

While addressing the august gathering at the Steellenium Hall, Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel said, “It is a historical day not only for Tata Steel but also for the nation. I would like to thank Mr. R S Pandey, who came to Jamshedpur to be a part of this momentous day. The blow in of H Blast Furnace is a major milestone and another giant step in making India prosperous. It is India’s largest blast furnace and it is an effort by Tata Steel to add tremendously to the nation building process. Steel is the back bone of the country and we want to ensure that India does not miss the bus. I would like to thank the entire team for completing the project in record time”

The chief guest for the occasion, Mr. R S Pandey, Secretary for Steel, Government of India was exhilarated to be a part of the commissioning of H Blast Furnace. “It is the largest blast furnace that has been completed in 25 months. It will work efficiently and pave the path for the construction of more blast furnaces. I would like to extend my congratulations to the entire team for achieving this remarkable feat. I get the reassurance that Tata Steel will continue to play a pioneering role in the process of steel making”

The foundation stone for this 2.5 MTPA Blast Furnace was laid in June, 2006. The project broadly involved a total of 80,000 m3 of civil work, 28,000 tons of structural work, 20,000 tons of equipment erection, 22,000 tons of refractory work and 1.5 km of rail track and 1500 km of electrical cabling involved. All the shells and major pipe line were fabricated in-house by Growth Shop of Tata Steel and most of the equipments have been procured from reputed OEMs Overseas. The whole plant has been designed within an area of 63 acre due to space constraints and this is an engineering marvel. Also the project has been completed in 25 months from the groundbreaking which is the shortest possible time ever taken for construction of such a large furnace anywhere in the world.

‘H’ Blast Furnace will produce over 7200 tonnes of hot metal per day with a coke rate of 380 kg/thm and coal injection rate of 160 kg/thm. The furnace is equipped with all modern features. It has two flat cast houses with four tapholes. Cold blast will be made available by electrically driven blowers. Energy in terms of electrical power will be recovered from the BF gas through an expansion turbine. The waste heat from the stoves’ exhaust will be recovered to save on the fuel rate of the furnace. The Slag generated will be supplied for Cement Manufacturing in granulated form.

The commissioning of the largest Blast Furnace of 3800 m3 in Jamshedpur Steel Works is in the year when Tata Steel is celebrating its Centenary and this is a moment of great pride not only for Tata Steel, but also the nation as a whole. 10 MT expansion of Jamshedpur Steel works will be completed by December 2010.

The function was attended by Mr. S.K. Roy, Chief (H Blast Furnace) along with his team, Jaswant Singh, Committee Members of Tata Workers Union and other dignitaries.

About Tata Steel

Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel in 2006 on a combined basis is the world’s sixth largest steel producer in terms of actual crude steel production with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700 employees across the four continents.