The JSW Group has chosen an Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) for making steel bars and rods in the initial stages at the integrated steel plant being established in Kadapa district.
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It is likely to finalise the technology supplier in a meeting of its Board of Directors later this month, according to official sources.
The company is in the process of obtaining board approvals and financial closures, after which it will begin civil works at the site.
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A senior official of the YSR Steel Corporation Limited told The Hindu that the State government’s role was to create external infrastructure, i.e. a railway line, roads, water and power supply, and it has already taken necessary action to get the project going.
The JSW Group, which has diverse businesses that mainly include steel, energy, infrastructure, cement and paints in several countries, has apparently decided to go for an EAF keeping in view its low capital cost compared to a conventional blast furnace, more importantly because EAFs are environmentally clean as their source of energy is electricity.
CO2 emissions
On the other hand, blast furnaces are capital-intensive and belch large quantities of CO2 and other particulate matter into the air as they burn massive quantities of coking coal for melting the iron ore.
It is pertinent to mention that the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, provided in its 13th Schedule for the establishment of an integrated steel plant in Kadapa district with 3-MTPA capacity, but it has so far made little progress due to financial and mining issues, and for some extraneous reasons.
The huge investment to be made (it is estimated that a million tonnes of steel manufacturing capacity requires ₹5,000 crore to ₹6,000 crore) has played its part in the delay, and the vagaries of the global steel market that are aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic also have their impact.