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IRON & STEEL REVIEW

February 2009

India’s stature as the world’s fifth largest steel producer owes a lot to SAIL

INTERVIEWS BY :
• Mr. S.K. Roongta
• Mr. Shoeb Ahmed
• Mr. P.K. Rastogi

Tata steel wins the ET Award for the company of the year - Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel receives the award from the Honourable Prime Minister of India and attributes it to the employees of the Company
Tata Steel received the Economic Times Company of the Year Award at a function organised in Mumbai on January 18. This prestigious award was received by Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel by the Honourable Prime Minster of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. This award is a recognition of Tata Steel as a company that has consistently set clear performance benchmarks for the rest of the industry and has striven to become a world leader.

Ion Exchange Honoured with Top Water Awards Again
Ion Exchange (India) Ltd.’s contribution to the water industry was once again recognised with prestigious Water Awards, awarded by Water Digest in association with UNESCO, for the third consecutive year at the award function held in Delhi on 11th December, 2008.

SAIL posts Q3 net profit at Rs. 843 crore - An interim dividend of 13 % to be paid
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) continued to post profit during the third quarter of the current financial year in spite of much higher cost of inputs and lower sales volumes due to depressed market conditions. However, as against growth in profit achieved during the first two quarters of current FY, SAIL's Q3 net profit at Rs. 843 crore showed a 56 % decline than the corresponding quarter last year (YoY).

VIEWPOINT
India’s stature as the world’s fifth largest steel producer owes a lot to SAIL
There is little bit of SAIL in everybody’s life. The old saying comes true even today when one looks at the contribution of the Indian steel behemoth – Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) – not only on the Indian economy as a whole, but also in every walk of life of all the citizens; not only as the largest steel making company in India, but also as one of the leading steel making companies of the world. Its variety of products like CR sheets and coils, galvanised sheets and stainless steel has contributed to the industrialisation of the country in a big way. In addition, through its wide ranging products, used at the high end sophisticated steel products as well as in the most common implements of daily use, SAIL – even at the age of 50 years today – is a modern steel making company holding India.

STEEL INTERNATIONAL
World crude steel production decreases by 1.2% in 2008
World crude steel production reached 1,329.7 million metric tons for the year of 2008. This is a decrease of -1.2% compared to 2007. 2008 is the second consecutive year that world steel production has been over 1,300 mmt.

COMPANY NEWS
SMT MACHINES (INDIA) LIMITED
SMT Machines (India) Limited is an ISO 9001:2000 and Govt. of India Recognized Export House, accredited Manufacturer and Exporter of Steel Mill Plants. SMT, equipped with latest state of the art machines imported from Europe, a dedicated team of qualified, experienced engineers and staff, is at the forefront of Steel Mill Technology. It is situated on the G.T. road, near industrial focal point, Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab (India) i.e. 260 km North of New Delhi. Nearest Airport - Chandigarh.

Pelletization: Need of the hour
Iron ore pelletizing was firmly established in late 40s in USA, as a process of agglomerating iron ore concentrate produced by beneficiating low grade magnetitic iron ore. To liberate the gangue (SiO2 + Al2O3), the run-of-mine ore had to be ground to minus 200 mesh. The process of beneficiation was aimed at upgrading the low grade iron ore from a nominal 30% head Fe to above 64% by magnetic separation.

ZKL Bearings’ cost optimizing Total Shaft Solution
Keeping motion alive is of crucial importance as it forms the basis of growth & development. Understanding this need of growing India ZKL Bearings (India) Pvt Ltd unleashes the Total Shaft Solution, which addresses any rotating shaft problem. Using the Total Shaft Solution not only improves the performance of machines, but also reduces maintenance and downtime, enhancing the plant profitability.

GEA IHE Systems India
The GEA Group (Global Engineering Alliance) headquartered in Bochum, Germany, is a globally successful technology group with more than 250 companies in 50 countries.

FOCUS
Role of R & D in defining growth path for Indian Steel Industry
Research & Development (R&D) plays a pivotal role in technology management of an industry either in growth phase or in recession. It used to be more exploratory and based on individually conceived projects in the early 1960s & 1970s but, it was 1980s that made R&D more industry relevant with industries spending on it for solving their operational problems and improving productivity. Industrial R&D emerged as the main pillar for economic development in 1990s with average R&D expenditure by global companies reached 4 percent of the turnover by 2000.

SPECIAL FEATURE
SAIL's 50 years of production 1959-2009
Kautilya, in his 4th century BC treatise Arthashastra, stated that the resources responsible for the creation of wealth were the sole property of the State, which included mining, metallurgy, minting, weaponry, fishing, salt making, ferrying, forestry, etc. This concept of state ownership and control of productive enterprises was given tangible shape by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He firmly believed that economic development of the newly independent nation was the government’s responsibility. Thus the public sector in India emerged with a philosophy of ushering in a socialistic order for contributing to economic emancipation through rapid industrialisation.

SAIL's glorious 50 years of production
The public sector steel industry was launched under the stewardship of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharwal Nehru. The decision have been invaluable in ensuring self-reliance, growth of technology and trained technical personnel that provided the necessary infrastructure for the industrial development of the country.

Rourkela Steel Plant-Glorious Past, Proud Present, Promising Future
Right after India won its much-cherished freedom, the need was to build a strong, self sufficient and vibrant country from scratch. The dream of the visionary leaders of those times ushered in an industrial revolution that has now made India one of the fastest growing developing countries. ‘The Temples of Modern India’ as termed by the then Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru have contributed significantly in this transformation from a nascent Republic to a would be super power. Rourkela Steel Plant has been a torchbearer in this journey of trials and tribulations. This first public sector steel plant of the country, during half a century of its existence, has contributed significantly in strengthening the Nation in the true sense of the term. In all these years, the goals of this plant have remained synonymous with those of the country that are - furthering economic growth and enhancing quality of life of the people.

Quality Circle Movement – an approach by Durgapur Steel Plant
A Quality Circle is a volunteer group comprising of workers (or even students) who meet to talk about work place improvement and make presentations to the Management with their ideas, relating to Quality of output for improving the performance, which motivates & enriches the work of employees. It is a participative philosophy woven around ‘Quality Control’ and ‘Problem Solving Techniques’ at the bottom level in an Organization. It epitomizes the policy of People building, respect for Human Beings and conceives a Participative Management Culture. The concept enables the grass-root level employees to play a meaningful & significant role in their Organization’s development. The main purpose behind Quality Circles is to build and produce ‘Quality People’ towards making Quality Products or providing Quality Services. It is to make a ‘Man’ productive and knowledge-worthy.

REFRACTORY
World refractory market shrink slowly, total production keep increasing over time
The International Refractories Congress (Irefcon) 2008 in Kolkata had a definite fall out in the notion that the refractories industry in India has got a face lift in the last couple of years due to the booming steel industry in the country – both in terms of adopting newer technologies for better product development in a more economical way and investments inflows in India. Not only the big Indian players like Tata Refractories, Ace Refractories, IFGL, OCL, Vesuvius etc. came in a big way; the smaller players also had a good time in their respective business areas. Even the foreign players like Eirich, Laeis, Almatis, Elkem paid more attention to the country in recent times in terms of collaborations and marketing efforts in the country.

STEEL MARKET
Imbalances in supply and demand send EU steel prices into free fall, input cost deflation not improving stainless steel mill demand
Financial problems across the region are expected to negatively affect demand over the coming months. This, coupled with weak export markets, will push transaction values for all flat products lower in the short term. De-stocking by distributors is forecast to continue during the final quarter. Consequently, mill sales volumes are likely to drop further. This may prompt local producers to further reduce selling offers in a bid to fill their depleted order books. The auto and construction industries are reported to be particularly weak, impacting heavily on cold rolled and coated figures.

MEPS forecasts world crude steel output this year below the 2007 outturn
Turkish long product producers are now seeking a higher price for reinforcing bar and merchant bar to reflect rising production costs. Smaller re-rollers have opted to stop producing altogether and have brought forward maintenance work. On the flat products side, heavy discounting of unsold material has failed to invigorate buyer interest. Some end-users have started purchasing material on a cash-basis but volumes are low and fall short of what is required to deplete stockpiles.

STEEL TECHNOLOGY
An insight into the Macroscopic of fracture of metals
Fracture can be viewed on many levels, depending on the size of the fractured region that is of interest. At the macroscopic level fracture occurs over dimensions that are of the order of the size of flaws or notches (1 mm or greater). From the principles of fracture mechanics it is possible to determine macroscopic fracture criteria in terms of the nominal fracture strength, the flaw length, and the critical amount of plastic work required to initiate unstable fracture -- the fracture toughness.

State-of-the-art abrasive cutting machines to improve the operation of modern rolling mills
Abrasive cutting is the ideal cutting technology to increase the throughput capacity as well as the flexibility of hot rolling mills, both for long and for flat products. A higher degree of automation, reduced overall running costs and in particular an improved quality of the rolled products are also substantial advantages of abrasive cut-off machines. During recent years, numerous existing rolling mills have also been upgraded by retrofitting abrasive cut-off machines. To achieve best possible results, however, the abrasive cut-off machines must be of state-of-the-art design and perfectly tuned to the individual application.

Continuous upgrading of the hot strip mill at voestalpine Stahl in Linz
Steel is in constant competition with other materials on the market. The development in the last few years especially has shown steel’s capabilities. New steel grades with improved properties also have significantly higher requirements for the manufacturing process. The technical plant limits are therefore reached more often and sometimes even exceeded. Based on our strategy to aspire to quality, cost and technology leadership as a professional hot strip supplier, it is necessary to constantly improve and modernize the plant. In addition to the efficiency of the plant, the training of the staff is the second most important factor for producing highest quality.

New ways to make plate part II – Asset and process trends around the world
Modern plate mills are metallurgical precision instruments, and their design nowadays demands an allround process engineering capability. In the first of this pair of papers, the common characteristics of the best mills were identified and described.

Pickling sections in coupled pickling lines and tandem cold mills
For a wide range of product applications, the required strip thickness, flatness and surface quality can be achieved more economically by linking the pickling and cold rolling processes. This delivers significant improvements with regard to mill productivity, yield and production costs as a result of the elimination of multiple strip threading and tailing-out operations.

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