A state-of-the-art blast furnace, which will boost the hot metal capacity of the Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) by 2.5 million tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes, and more than double the present hot metal capacity of the Rourkela Steel Plant unit, has become operational. SAIL’s current hot metal capacity is 13.8 mllion tonnes.
A company statement said that SAIL Chairman C. S. Verma visited the furnace and inspected the facilities on Saturday. He also inaugurated a new slab caster, which has been set up at a cost of around Rs.500 crore.