scm

STUDY ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT

VISAKHAPATNAM STEELPLANT (RINL),

VIZAG

UNDER THE ESTEEMED GUIDANCE OF

O.V.KISHORE Senior Manager (Mktg)

Marketing Department

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant

PROJECT REPORT (A project report submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

Master of Business Administration)

SUBMITTED

BY

N.SHANMUKHA PAVAN TEJ

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

FACILITED BY HR DEPARTMANT

SRI O.R.M. RAO SRI M.L.S. VARMA

AGM (HRD) Dy. MANAGER

(HRD)

VISAKHAPATNAM STEEL PLANT

RINL, VISAKHAPATNAM STEEL PLANT

VISAKHAPATNAM

(2011-2013)

CERTIFICATE

This is to Certify that this Project work entitled “SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT

VISAKHAPATNAM STEEL PLANT” is a bonafide work done and submitted by

N.SHANMUKHA PAVAN TEJ, in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of

the degree of “Master of Business Administration” by the “ IIPM” during 2011-13.

O.V.KRISHORE

SR MANAGER

MARKETING DEPARTMENT

VISAKHAPATNAM.

Place: Visakhapatnam.

Date: 07/08/2012.

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this project work entitled “SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT at

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant”, has been undertaken by me in requirement for the award of

Master Degree in Business Administration from INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PLANNING

AND MANAGEMENT.

I also declare that this project report is the result of my own efforts & that the same has not

been submitted to any other University institution for the award of any degree or diploma.

Place: Visakhapatnam. signature of the student

Date: 07/08/2012. N.SHANMUKHA PAVAN TEJ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere thanks to Mr. O.V.KISHORE, Senior Manager (Marketing), of

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, who have taken time and effort

in helping me in getting proper information and guiding me throughout the project without

which it would not have been possible for me to complete this project.

I express my sincere gratitude to Mr. O.RAMA MOHAN RAO, Asst. General Manager

(HRD), for giving me permission for doing the project in RINL.

It‟s my great pleasure to extend my sincere thanks to the INDIAN INSTITUTE OF

PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT for allowing me to do the project of my choice.

Finally, I express my sincere thanks to my friends who have helped me giving ideas,

providing information, records etc., for fulfillment of this project.

Place: Visakhapatnam. N.SHANMUKHA PAVAN TEJ

Date: 07/08/2012.

INDEX

Chapter I HISTORY [01-24]

1.1 Development of steel industry in India 02

1.2 Liberalization 04

1.3 History of Visakhapatnam steel plant 05

1.4 Major production units and Service Units 23

Chapter II WARE HOUSES [25-29]

Chapter III PROCESSING PLANTS [30-48]

3.1 Coke Oven and Coal Chemical Department 31

3.2 Sinter Plant 34

3.3 Calcining and Refractory Material Plant 36

3.4 Blast Furnace 39

3.5 Steel Melting Shop 44

Chapter IV FINISHING PLANTS [49-57]

4.1 Light and Medium Merchant Mill 50

4.2 Medium Merchant and Structural Mill 53

4.3 Wire Rod Mill 55

Chapter V DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL [58-62]

FUNCTIONS OF VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS [63-68]

CONCLUSION [69]

BIBILOGRAPHY [70]

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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CHAPTER 1

HISTORY


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THE INDIAN IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY

What‟s in a name? Nothing, one might say. For steel a century old metal-there additionally

seems no reason for any possible non-unanimity of thought. But here precisely are the

chances of our going wrong. True, like most Industries, the Indian steel industry has

experienced the highs and lows of a business cycle that has been impacted by globalization

and has been subjected to the vagaries of market forces in a liberalized setup. But at the end

of it all, what we have today is a highly evolved, resilient and an ever-vigilant industry,

which through adoption of state-of-the-art technologies has not only withstood the test of

time but has also globally transformed the way men think and do business in steel.

1.1 DEVELOPMENT OF STEEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA:

Steel Making as a craft has been known to India for a long time. However, its production in

significant quantity started only after 1900. The Indian Steel Industry began with the setting

up of Tata Iron and Steel Co. in 1911.

The Chronological Order of the Events (pre independence):

1830 Joshua Marshal Health (who can be considered as a pioneer of modern steel industry in

India) constructed the first manufacturing plant at Porto NOVO in Madras Presidency. But it

was a financial failure.

In 1874 James Ersking founded the Bengal Iron Works. It passed on to M/s.Hoave Hiller &

Co., in 1882 and to M/s.Martin & Co., in 1885.

1899 it was due to the great vision and enterprise of Sri.Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata that the

Tata Iron & Steel Company (TISCO) was registered and in 1906 Sakchi in Bihar was chosen

as the site for the Tata Iron & Steel Company (TISCO). The same place is now known as

Jamshedpur. In 1911 the company started its production. Its initial capacity was 10000 MTs

of ingots and within 2 years it achieved a capacity of 50000 MTs of Ingots per year. By

1939 it reached a capacity of 1.5 lakh MTs per year.


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In 1918, initially IISCO was founded and the Bengal Iron & Steel Company was merged with

it in 1926. IISCO initially started to manufacture only PIG IRON for Export to UK and

Japan. It started to produce Steel from 1939.

Mysore Iron & Steel Ltd., (Presently known as Visvesvarayya Iron & Steel Ltd. (VISL) at

Bhadravati in Karnataka was formed in the period 1940-50, owing to the pioneering efforts of

Sri.Mokshagundam Viswesvarayya. Initially it started producing Charcoal Pig Iron. Only

from the year 1936, it started producing Steel and after 1945 adopted Electric reduction of

Iron Ore. Now it is producing Ferro Alloys & Special Steels.

With help of abundant raw material available within the country, the Industry has grown

significantly since independence. Prompted by the socialistic pattern of development, the

license for large scale integrated steel units was received for the public sector. As a result,

TATA IRON & STEEL COMPANY (TISCO) plant situated in Jamshedpur was the only

integrated plant outside government control.

Besides, the Government had price distributive controls over mild-Steel manufacturers.

Imports were subjected to quantitative and tariff based restrictions and foreign investments

were also restricted. Thus, till 1991, investment in this sector came mainly from plan

allocations. The additions to capacity were also restricted.

The additions to capacity were not uniform. During the first 3-five year plans, there was a

significant addition to capacity-over 14 million MTs of crude steel. However, during the

seventies and eighties, additional investment was not made due to lack of funds. The

expansion of existing steel plants also suffered delays due to the scarcity of invertible

resources.

In the seventies, most of mini-steel plants (most ranging within 10,000 to 50,000 tons per

annum capacity) came up with Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology, producing steel from

scrap. These were set up in the private sector to meet shortage, which Arose due to stagnation

in investment and capacity creation. In the eighties, steel units using electric induction

technologies were introduced. These units were based on scrap and were best suited to cater

to remote areas. The units, however, were not essentially cost-effective compared to the large

integrated plants. Once the price control on steel was removed in 1992, these units could not


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withstand competition in the wake of rising electricity cost and increase in the price of steel-

scrap. At the time of price

decontrol, mini-steel units based on EAF and EIF accounted for a combined capacity of 7

million MTs per annum.

The steel industry development strategy took a paradigm shift in 1991 after four decades of

elaborately controlled development. No doubt, of all the industries, steel received maximum

support from the Government, but due to lack of competitiveness, the industry became

inefficient. The departure from import substitution had a far-reaching impact.

1.2 AFTER LIBERALIZATION:

The aim of liberalization policy measures has been that the Industry benefits from invertible

resources for upgrading and addition of capacities through the participation of the private

sector. The de-regulation of prices was to enable the participation of the private sector.

The de-regulation of prices was to enable the industry to generate resources internally.

Beside these industry specific reforms, overall measures taken for liberalization of the

economy helped the steel sector. For example, the convertibility of the rupee made Indian

steel products competitive in the international market. Indian units can use the availability of

good quality raw material and cheap labor to their advantage. However, this advantage may

not last long, as there is an effort the world over reduces manpower by adopting high level of

mechanization.

The fact that after the initiation of reforms, 19 new units had proceeded to implement Basic

Oxygen Furnace (BOF) by continuous casting route cannot be ignored. To come up with an

aggregate capacity of over 11 million MTs is ample evidence of powerful impact these

reforms have had on the growth of the industry. A number of private sector enterprises have

come forward to set up steel units.

With increasing competition from within and more imports due to duty cuts, the domestic

manufacturers are under pressure to reduce costs and improve technology. SAIL has

undertaken modernization of its Durgapur, Rourkela and Bokaro plants. It involves

conversion of traditional open hearth the ingot casting there are even better technologies

available such as the BF-Electric Arc Furnace which facilities setting up of smaller units. The


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main challenger facing the steel sector is to exercise its own vision for growth. The more it

moves away from the clutches of

protection, the more efficient it will become. It should be allowed to upgrade its technology

and export steel in a big way.

CLASSIFICATION OF STEEL INDUSTRY:

Steel Industry

_______________________________________________________________

Integrated Mini Steel Plants Re-rolling Mills Alloy &

Steel Plants Special Steel Plant

1.3 HISTORY OF VISAKHAPATNAM STEEL PLANT:

With a view to give greater impetus to Industrial growth and to meet the aspirations of the

people from Andhra Pradesh, Government of India decided to establish Integrated Steel Plant

in Public Sector at Visakhapatnam (AP). The announcement to this effect was made in the

Parliament on 17th April' 1970 by the then Prime Minister of India late Smt. Indira Gandhi.

A site was earmarked at Balacheruvu creek near Visakhapatnam city by a Committee set up

for the purpose, keeping in view the topographical features, greater availability of land and

proximity to a future port. Smt. Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone for the plant on

20.01.1971.

Seeds were thus sown for the construction of a modern & sophisticated Steel Plant having

annual capacity of 3.4 Million Tons of hot metal. An agreement was signed between Gov-

ernments of India and the erstwhile USSR on June 12th, 1979 for setting up of an Integrated

Steel Plant to produce structural & long products on the basis of detailed Project report

prepared by M/s M.N. Dastur & Company. A Comprehensive revised DPR jointly prepared

by the Engineers from erstwhile USSR (now Russia) & M/s M.N. Dastur & Company was

submitted in Nov' 1980 to Govt. of India.

The construction of the Plant started on 1st February 1982. Government of India on 18th

Feb'82 formed a new Company called Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) and transferred the


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responsibility of constructing, commissioning & operating the Plant at Visakhapatnam from

Steel Authority of India Ltd. to RINL.

Due to poor resource availability, the construction could not keep pace with the plans, which

led to appreciable revision of the plant cost. In view of the critical fund situation and need to

check further increase in the plant costs, a rationalized concept was approved which was to

cost Rs. 6849 Crores based on 4th Quarter of 1988.

The rationalized concept was based on obtaining the maximum output from the equipment‟s

already installed, planned / ordered for procurement and achieving higher levels of opera-

tional efficiency and labor productivity. Thus the plant capacity was limited to 3.0 Million

Tons of Liquid Steel per annum. In the process, one of the Steel Melt Shops and one of the

mills were curtailed.

The availability of resources were continued to be lower than what was planned and this

further delayed the completion of the construction of the plant. Finally all the units were con-

structed and commissioned by July' 92 at a cost of Rs. 8529 crores. The plant was dedicated

to the nation by the then prime Minister of India Late Sri P. V. Narasimha Rao on 1st August

1992.

Since Commissioning VSP has already crossed many milestones in the fields of production,

productivity & exports. Coke rate is of the order of 509 Kg/Ton of Hot metal, average

converter life of 2864 heats an average of 23.6 heats per sequence in continuous Bloom

Caster. Specific energy consumption of 6.07 G Kal / ton of liquid steel, a specific refractory

consumption of 8.94 kg and a labor productivity of 265 Ton / man-year are some of the peaks

achieved (during the year 2004-05) in pursuit of excellence.

Chronological order of events of VSP

1962 -1963: Minister of Steel and Iron announced 5th

integrated steel plant at Visakhapatnam

in line with report of BASIC (British, America Steel for India Consortium) formed to study a

suitable location for the proposed plant. BASIC emphasized the then trends of locating plants

at deep water sites in order to cater to exports on expanding scale. BASIC narrowed down to


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Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Hospet (Karnataka) from the six potential sites offered

by the Government before finalizing Visakhapatnam. The location for the plant was also

confirmed by HSL (Hindustan Steel Ltd.)

1966 – 1969: After the preliminary announcement, there was no follow up on the matter due

to several constraints on the part of the Government. It was at this juncture that Sri Tenneti

Viswanadham, proud son of Andhra and a distinguished freedom fighter, led the relentless

crusade for setting up the Steel Plant in Visakhapatnam. The tenacity of purpose exhibited by

him and others during the period is reflected by the electrifying slogan „Viaskha Ukku,

Andhrula Hakku’. The agitation gained momentum when the then Prime Minister Mrs.

Indira Gandhi on 4th

Nov 1967, wrote off the possibility of setting up the 5th

steel plant in the

country, citing non-availability of adequate resources as the reason.

1970: The agitation turned violent, which resulted in loss of 32 valuable lives and injuries to

thousands. The Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi then made an announcement on 17th

April

1970 for setting up the plant in the proposed site at Visakhapatnam.

The site selection committee was constituted in June 1970 to study alternate sites in

Visakhapatnam area for the proposed integrated steel plant. The committee recommended

area close to the sea coast near Balacheruvu creek.

1971: The site was formally inaugurated by Mrs. Indira Gandhi, on 20th

January 1971.In

February, the Government entrusted the preparation of feasibility report for the project to

M.N. Dastur & Company (P) Limited, Calcutta.

1972: M.N. Dastur & Company prepared and submitted the feasibility report with a capacity

of 2 million tons and concluded that a project with a capacity of 3 million tons would better

optimize investments and costs.

1973: The Public Investment Board (PIB), Government of India, considered the feasibility

report and asked for a detailed project report for further approval by the Government.

1974: First block of land was taken over on 7th

April.


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1975: Formal order was placed on Dastur & Company for preparation of Detailed Project

Report (DPR).

1977: M.N. Dastur & Company, finally submitted the Detailed Project Report (DPR) in the

month of October.

1979: An understanding between the Governments of India and USSR for technical and

economic cooperation for setting up the steel plant was reached on 12th

June. Visakhapatnam

Steel Plant was to become the third integrated steel plant in the country to be set up with the

Soviet Union‟s assistance after Bhilai and Bokaro steel plants.

Cabinet approval for Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was accorded in June. The details of the

project approved are given below:

Details of the project report

Liquid steel capacity

3 Million tons

SMS1 (1.08 million tons) consisting of 2 x

130cum converters

SMS2 (2.18 million tons) consisting of 2 x

130cum converters

Project cost Rs. 2256 Crores

Government also requested for Comprehensive Revised Detailed Project Report (CRDPR)

with firmed up cost estimates.

The project that was conceived in 1962 took 8 years for in-principle sanction of the

Government and further 7 years for the preparation of DPR.

1980: Subsequently M.N. Dastur Company and GIPROMEZ of USSR worked hand-in-hand

to prepare a Comprehensive Revised Detailed Project Report (CRDPR), which was submitted

to the Government on 30th

November, which was duly approved.

1981: Construction of major roads, construction water and electrical supply, drinking water

pump house and boundary wall were among the initial activities started during the year.

Highlights of CRDPR are as follows:


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Details of CRDPR

Capacity 3.4 million tons of liquid steel

2.983 million tons of saleable steel

Project cost Rupees. 3897 Crores

Time schedule Six years (by December 1987)First stage of 1 million ton by

1985

1982: The project was originally conceived as one of the five operating units of Steel

Authority of India Limited (SAIL). With issues related to project management and execution

of the biggest and most modern steel plant becoming unmanageable, the Government decided

to form a new corporate entity called Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) for speedy

execution of the Visakhapatnam Steel Project. Accordingly, RINL was formed on 18th

February. The year also saw the commencement of construction activities.

Over 19,100 acres of land was already acquired out of the total requirement of 25,661 acres.

6,400 acres were exclusively for plant and 6,600 acres were earmarked for construction of

township. Approximately 12,000 acres were earmarked for utilities like material storage

yards and future expansion requirement, which were tentatively projected for 10 million tons

but 25 years down the line the area was found enough for expansion up to 16 million tons.

The immediate challenge for the project execution was that of establishing road and rail

connectivity. Construction power lines were already in place.

1983: Even in those early days of computerization in India, the project adopted interim

computer system SN-23 for project monitoring and other functional areas like Personnel,

Finance and Materials management.

There was tremendous thrust on construction activities like site leveling, civil and structural

drawings, excavation; equipment ordering etc. and more than 50% of the work in each of the

category were completed by the year end.

Initial construction activities of dwelling units in township were started during the year.

1984: Though the company committed itself to nearly 60% of the construction and

equipment ordering, funds availability was never commensurate with the project schedules,


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which were being adversely impacted and commissioning of the plant by December 1987

looked increasingly impossible.

1985 & 1986: There was a substantial increase in project cost above the sanctioned cost of

Rs. 3,897 Crores as a result of escalations due to delayed implementation and under

provisions in DPR estimates. This also raised questions about the economic viability of the

project.

In view of this, a thorough review of the project was done and rationalized concept was

mooted as an alternative. Rationalized concept was formalized in consultation with Dastur &

Company with the aim of reducing the capital costs without significant downsizing of the

capacities envisaged in CRDPR. Changes were made in the downstream units of the plant

starting from steelmaking as shown below:

Original concept Rationalized concept

Iron

making

Two 3200cum Blast furnaces (3.4

million ton per annum capacity)

Two 3200cum Blast furnaces (3.4

million ton per annum capacity)

Steel

making

SMS-1(1.15 Mt)

Two 130 ton converters and Four 4-

strand bloom casters

SMS-2 (2.25 Mt )

Three 130 ton converters and Six 4

strand bloom casters

(Total of 3.4 million ton liquid steel

with SMS-1 & 2)

SMS

Three 150 ton converters and Six

4-strand continuous bloom casters

(Total of 3 million ton liquid steel)

Finishing Light Medium Merchant

products:0.71 Mt

Wire rods : 0.6 Mt

Medium Merchant & Structural

products: 0.7 Mt

Universal Beam Mill Products : 0.8

Mt

Billets : 0.173 Mt

Total : 2.983 Mt

Light Medium Merchant

products:0.71 Mt

Wire rods : 0.85 Mt

Medium Merchant & Structural

products: 0.85 Mt

Billets : 0.246 Mt

Total : 2.656 Mt


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The idea was to obtain maximum output from the equipment already installed or planned for

procurement and achieving higher levels of operating efficiency & labor productivity than

what was originally envisaged.

To make the plant viable, it was felt necessary to operate it at high levels of efficiency

comparable to international standards and achieve rated capacities in the shortest possible

times. The challenge ahead can be seen from the comparative table below:

Design for high levels of operational efficiency

Capacity utilization of best

integrated steel plant in India

during the period 1981 –

1985

73.4% to 85% (Bhilai

Steel Plant)

Cross 100% in the shortest

possible time

Labour productivity 69 tons / man / year

(Bhilai Steel Plant)

230 tons / man / year

The rationalized concept submitted to Government in 1986 had presented a viable option to

make the project a reality by making an optimum use of investments already made to the tune

of Rupees 2335 Crores for construction during the period 1982 – 1986.

The project was accordingly revised and scheduled for implementation in two stages, Stage-1

by 1988 and stage-2 by 1992.

Facilities Stage 1 Stage 2

Coke Ovens Batteries 1 & 2 Battery 3

Sinter Plant Sinter machine 1 Sinter machine 2

Blast Furnace Blast Furnace 1 Blast Furnace 2

Steel Melting Shop LD converter 1 & 2 LD converter 3

Continuous casting

machines 1,2 & 3

Continuous casting

machines 4,5 & 6

Rolling mills Light & Medium Merchant

Mill

Medium Merchant &

Structural Mill

Wire Rod Mill


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Capacities:

Hot metal

Liquid steel

Saleable steel

1.7 Mt

1.5 Mt

1.326 Mt

3.4 Mt

3.0 Mt

2.656 Mt

In spite of the hectic project execution activities the focus on environment was never lost and

against a target of 1 lakh trees, a total of 1.34 lakh trees were planted. Other soft issues like

institutionalizing organization culture, mission and performance rewards got prominence

during the period. A special task group was formed to evolve related policies.

1987: The positive effect of rationalization resulted in construction work progressing at full

steam. By this time commitments to the extent of Rupees 4,740 Crores and an expenditure of

Rupees 3,034 Crores was already made.

Government approved the revised cost estimates of Rupees 6,849.70 Crores, as a fall out of

rationalized concept.

There was buoyancy all around and in order to sustain the momentum and ensure high levels

of commitment required to perform at international levels of efficiency the introduction “New

Work Culture” that would distinguish Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in the coming years was

planned meticulously.

The basic tenets of the “New Work Culture” as it was put into action can be exemplified by

the systems introduced:

Multi-skilled work system

Socially useful productive work such as plantation & horticulture during training

Overlapping shifts for improving punctuality and smooth handing over / taking over

of shift responsibilities

Adoption of best operating and maintenance practices to cope with the high levels of

automation envisaged for the plant

Thus there was constant thrust on converting ideas into working systems.

The clarity of purpose and comprehensiveness of thinking of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant

collective can be seen from the direction set by the top management through mission and

objectives, which show the intent towards all stakeholders:

Mission:

To produce steel at international levels of efficiency and strengthen the national economy.


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Objectives:

To construct and commission VSP by July 1990 with in a cost of Rupees 6281 Crores

To achieve rated capacity within 12 months of commissioning

To operate and maintain the plant at international levels of efficiency and to achieve a

place for pre-eminence for VSP in the Indian steel industry

To achieve and maintain labour productivity of not less than 230 tons / man / year

To ensure quality products and meet market demands

To achieve high levels of safety standards

To enrich the quality of life and work

To provide for growth and development of the employees

To develop well trained, motivated and talented work force which would form a

nucleus for future development of the Indian steel industry

To take measures for conservation of environment

To act as a catalyst for the growth of ancillary industries and promote the welfare of

the people of the area

1988: This was an eventful year in the history of VSP, as pre-commissioning activities in

almost all the major technological units were started in the primary zones.

Highlights of pre-commissioning and commissioning activities during the year

Lighting up of first CO Battery thus becoming the third unit in the steel industry

to use Butane-Propane gas for the purpose

Commissioning of 60 MW Turbo Generator

Commissioning of Raw material handling facilities

Commissioning of Main Receiving Station

Afforestation was one of the thrust areas of the year. A 500 meters wide green belt along the

boundary line was created.

1989: Godavari – the biggest Blast Furnace (Volume of 3200cum) was ready for

commissioning by the month of November but had to wait for commissioning due to the

delay in completion of Yeleru water scheme of the State Government.


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Highlights of commissioning activities during the year

CO Battery-1 along with By-Product Plant on 6th

September

Sinter machine – 1 on 14th

November

Apart from the brisk progress on technological front, employee welfare amenities like

housing, medical facilities, subsidized canteens, consumer cooperative stores, cooperative

credit and thrift society and parks got prominence during the year.

During January, one millionth tree was planted in the project premises and the target of

planting 3 million trees was firmed up as company‟s commitment towards pollution control,

which meant 1 tree for every ton of steel that would be produced in the plant.

1990: Major highlights during the year include:

Commissioning of Blast furnace 1 (Godavari) on 28.03.1990 by Mr. Bonda Kannaiah

(Employee Number – 100091), Khalasi, the senior most employee working in Blast

Furnace area.

Blast Furnace 1 (Godavari) was dedicated to the nation by the then honourable Prime

Minister Mr. V.P. Singh on 03.05.1990

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant products like Pig Iron and granulated slag made maiden

appearance in Indian markets

Commissioning of Converter-A and continuous Casting Machine -1 of Steel Melting

Shop during September and Converter-B and Continuous Casting Machine-2 in

November

Gross sales of Rupees 245.15 Crores was achieved during the first year of commercial

operations (1990-91)

VSP‟s commitment as part of social obligation of 5000 jobs for the people displaced

due to the project was fulfilled during the year as a total of 5224 were recruited over

the years.

Safety incentive – first of its kind in Indian steel industry was introduced in the first

year of operations.

Launch of small group activities in the form of Quality Circles during April.

1991: The year has been one of pride and achievement when all major units of Stage 1 were

commissioned by October and the commissioning activities of Stage 2 started from the month

of September with the commissioning of Continuous Casting Machine – 4.


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VSP made its initial mark in international markets with the export of 1500 tons of Wire Rods

to Japan and Sri Lanka.

Considerable thrust was given to development of ancillary units during the year, particularly

to downstream industry based on by products and upstream engineering units for supplying

spares to the company. 108 local small scale industrial units were selected for development.

160 bed modern multi-specialty hospital - Visakha General Hospital- was inaugurated during

the year. The hospital would cater to the health needs of the employees, their families and the

peripheral villages.

The project cost was updated to Rupees 8348.73 Crores.

1992: Highlights of commissioning activities during the year:

Krishna – Blast Furnace -2 by CH. Sai Ram (Employee Number– 116040), Junior

Trainee, the junior most employee in Blast furnace area

Lighting up of Medium Merchant and Structural Mill furnace

Lighting up of Coke Oven Battery - 3

With the commissioning of 3 million ton facilities, the plant was dedicated to the nation by

the then Prime Minister Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao on 01.08.1992. Challenge now shifted from

commissioning a gigantic Steel Plant to operating the plant with most advanced technological

profile and achieves 100 percent capacity utilization.

The year also saw VSP finish as the largest exporter of steel as company earned Rupees 212

Crores from exports in the first year of full-fledged operations (1992-93) with a view on

employee development, comprehensive performance appraisal system was introduced for

executives.

Financial restructuring of capital base was approved during the year, to make company

financially viable. Salient features of financial restructuring were as follows:

Conversion of 50% of outstanding Government loans into equity and balance into non

cumulative preference share capital

Conversion of interest liability to Government into interest free loan for 7 years

The approved project cost was updated to Rupees 8529 Crores excluding mines.


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1993: This was the year when VSP embarked upon cost reduction measures, which resulted

in lowering of cost of liquid steel by 11% from the levels of previous financial year (1992-

93). Energy conservation was a distinct thrust area for the company and the initiatives taken

up during the year would lead Visakhapatnam Steel Plant becoming the most energy efficient

plant in the country in the years to come.

The major initiatives taken up include:

Changeover of Coke Oven Battery – 2 from CO gas to mixed gas firing (optimized

fuel mix)

Commissioning and streamlining of auxiliary power generation stations like Back

Pressure Turbines and Gas Expansion Turbines in Coke ovens and Blast Furnace

areas

Commissioning of LD gas recovery plant

Commissioning of computerized energy centre (SCADA) to optimize utilization of

fuel and utilities

Thrust continued on export of iron and steel products. VSP maintained its position of largest

exporter in the country with the volume of exports crossing 1 million tons during1993-94.

Marketing network got a boost with opening of 6 new branches in the country, taking the

total to 24, which would serve the company and the markets for a long time to come.

With the operation of plant in full swing, spreading awareness on safety related issues was a

priority. 11,342 employees and contract workers were trained on various safety aspects

during the year.

As a social movement under Green Visakha program, 15000 saplings were planted on a

single day by involving residents of township and surrounding villages taking the total trees

planted in the plant premises to 2.76 million.

In order to promote ancillary industries various schemes for financial support and purchase

preference were initiated.

1994: During the financial year 1993-94, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant achieved operating

profits and cash profits of Rupees 50 Crores were recorded in 1994-95 for the first time. The

year also saw quantum improvement in many of the techno economic parameters like BF


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coke rate, energy consumption, labor productivity, and refractory consumption and BF

productivity.

There was a visible thrust on standardization and improvement of various processes and as a

result Wire Rod Mill became the first unit in the plant to obtain ISO 9002 certification.

1995: During this year major thrust was on new product development. High strength

corrosion resistant rebars, non-rimming electrode quality and cold heading quality wire rods

and high tensile structural steel products were developed and stabilized during the year.

The concept of Strategic Business Units (SBU) was implemented in areas like Coke Oven

and Coal Chemicals (COCD) and Project Engineering and Consultancy Services (PECS) to

provide autonomy and ensure accountability.

The company recorded cash profits for the second year in succession during 1995-96.

1996: Visakhapatnam Steel Plant got the MOU rating as “GOOD” from Department of

Public Enterprises for the year 1996-97.

After having stabilized the production at about 80% capacity utilization, the company

formulated Vision 2001 “to be self-supporting growing company with continuous

improvements in productivity, quality and customer satisfaction”. This was done through

three exploratory workshops involving cross section of executives. Company spelt out its

core values to define behavioral norms among the employees. The Core values identified

were:

Commitment

Customer satisfaction

Continuous improvement

Concern for environment

1997: Corporate plan 2001-02 was released during the year. The focus of which was on

optimal utilization and productivity improvement of existing assets with marginal

investments.

Solid waste utilization as a means of cost reduction was initiated. Thrust was on LD slag as

replacement of lime stone in Sinter Plant and recovery of scrap from LD slag for charging

into converters.


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Total Quality Movement (TQM initiative) was introduced in the company and all executives

were extensively trained. Further Quality Action Teams (QAT) was formed for taking up

TQM projects.

1998: As the accumulated losses exceeded the threshold of 50% of paid up capital the mater

was reported to Bureau of Industrial Financial Restructuring (BIFR), it was proposed to

convert Government loan into capital in 1998 With this restructuring Government would be

converting a total of Rupees 3330 Crores of its loan and Rupees 791 Crores of interest

component into equity and preference shares (1993 & 1998).

Government directed the company to formulate turnaround strategy for the long term

financial viability of the plant. M/s AT Kearney assisted by M/s Mecon was appointed as

consultants for techno-economic study for turnaround strategy and profitability of the

company.

1999: The agreed upon targets in Memorandum of Understanding with Government of India

were exceeded for liquid steel and saleable steel.

In spite of improvement in physical and fiscal performance of the company, the matter of

BIFR report ability was still a cause for concern as the company was still awaiting the capital

restructuring proposal submitted to the Government.

The plant was accorded ISO 9002 certification from “iron making to all downstream units

covering all finished products” making it first integrated steel plant to achieve this honour.

2000: For second year in a row the company exceeded the agreed upon targets in

Memorandum of Understanding with Government of India in almost all areas of production

and sales.

Astute financial strategies of swapping the high interest loans with low interest loan and

effective cash management put the company on the path of recovery as far as financial

performance was concerned.

2001: The long cherished dream of the company to achieve rated capacity was realized

during the year 2001-02.The company also received the MOU Award from Department of

Public Enterprises for its performance in 2000-01.

Specific energy consumption was at 6.62 Gcal/tls, which is the first instance of a Steel

Company in India to breach the 7.0 level.


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Solid waste recycling continued to be thrust area and a major driver for cost reduction with

initiatives like recirculation of pitch, coke dust and benzol muck in coke ovens, usage of coke

dust in base mix etc.

During the year the company was certified for ISO 18001 and ISO 14001.

VSP along with Bhilai Steel Plant and Tata Steel participated in Life Cycle Assessment

(LCA) study.

2002: The year 2002-03 has gone into the annals of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant as a year of

spectacular turnaround. Factors leading to the spectacular turnaround are recorded as:

Innovation and up gradation of plant equipment

Efficient operations management coupled with optimum waste utilization and cost

reduction measures

Marketing policies and strategies aided by speedy decision making to achieve record

sales

Healthy human relations with emphasis on motivation and morale boosting of

employees

Dynamic financial and cost management

The company achieved net profit of Rupees 520.69 Crores for the first time. Labor

productivity of 253 t / man / year was achieved which exceeded the DPR norm of 230 t / man

/ year for the first time.

To overcome the water crisis arising out of consecutive monsoon failures in the catchment

areas of Yeleru reservoir (source of water for plant operations), VSP entered into an

agreement with State Government to pump the water from Godavari river into Yeluru canal.

This would help resolve the water crisis of not only the steel plant and the industrial belt in

the vicinity but also the city of Visakhapatnam.

2003: Largely acknowledged as a year of consolidation, the company registered a net profit

of Rupees 1547.19 Crores for the year 2003-04.

Rated capacities were surpassed for third year in a row. The company was awarded the Prime

Minister‟s Trophy for excellent performance in steel industry.

During 2002-03, VSP achieved a composite score of 1.00 – the highest score a public sector

enterprise can achieve with respect to Memorandum of Understanding with the Government.


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Soon after the incredible turnaround that the company staged, it shifted its focus on ever

changing competitive landscape. In order to assess the company‟s competitive position,

opportunities in the market place and technological trends, series of workshops called

“Envisioning the future” were conducted by involving 200 executives across the company to

formulate vision, mission and objectives. Further brainstorming among senior leaders

resulted in crafting strategies to achieve the objectives. Also Visakhapatnam Steel Plant

collective identified fifth core value – Creativity and Innovation.

The company took upon itself to pursue an ambitious vision of “being a continuously

growing world class company”.

2004: Though the company was still awaiting the approval of financial restructuring package

by the Government, the huge profits made over two successive years had ensured that the

company was no longer in the “potentially sick” category as accumulated losses had slid

below the 50% of paid up capital.

During the financial year 2003-04, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant became a debt free company.

Corporate plan for expanding the plant capacity to 10 Million tons by 2020 was approved.

Company posted net profits for the third consecutive year and set a record of Rupees 2008

Crores in net profit for the year 2004-05.

Capacity utilization of 120% was achieved during the year. Companywide Knowledge

Management movement was initiated during the year to develop a culture of learning and

sharing.

Information Technology (IT) infrastructure was put in place to facilitate gradual shift to

online transactions. Transactions involving marketing, finance and materials functions were

made online.

2005: The year saw Visakhapatnam Steel Plant achieve one of its challenging objectives:

The company was placed among the five lowest cost liquid steel producers in the

world as per the Long Product cost study done by Commodity Research Unit, United

Kingdom

Thrust was on informal communication channels to connect employees with top

management. Initiatives introduced in this direction are as given below:

“Dil Ki Baat” – forum for executives to interact directly with top management


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“Chairman Tho Mata” – forum for non-executives to interact with top management

were introduced in the company.

“Chairman Online” – Web based system to interact with Chairman cum Managing

Director

During the month of October, Government approved the company‟s ambitious expansion

plan of doubling its liquid steel capacity to 6.3 million tons by 2008-09 with an investment of

Rupees 8,692 Crores.

2006: The year began with the achievement of the most daunting objective of company –

wiping out of the accumulated losses. The company was conferred with the status of

„MINIRATNA‟ Category-1 by the Government of India in recognition of the stupendous

performance over the years.

On 20th

May, honorable Prime Minister, Dr. ManMohan Singh laid the foundation stone for

the expansion project of the company.

With the expectancy of buoyant growth in the country, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant realigned

its long term plans to meet the demand for infrastructure development and submitted a

corporate plan of expanding plant capacity to 16 million tons by 2018 for the approval of

Ministry of Steel.

To overcome the crisis of increasing raw material prices the company forged Memorandum

of Understanding with National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) – and

Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL) for joint ventures to tide over the concerns of Iron ore

and Ferro alloys.

Continuous innovation in the core area of production to achieve highest levels of

performance in the techno-economic front in Indian steel Industry has always been the

hallmark of the company. The year saw Visakhapatnam Steel Plant crafting a roadmap for

process innovation all along the value chain with the adoption of Enterprise Resource

Planning (ERP) during December 2006.

With focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), objectives were formulated to

integrate CSR with business strategy and participate in Global Compact program of United

Nations.


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2007: The year 2007-08 began with VSP being adjudged the best integrated Steel Plant for

the year 2005-06, winning the coveted „Prime Ministers Trophy for the 2nd

time. VSP also

bagged the coveted CII „Significant Improvement‟ award in 2007.

The year 2007-08 registered production level of 3.91 Million tons (Mt) of Hot Metal, 3.32

Million tons of Liquid Steel and 3.07 Million tons of Saleable Steel. Capacity utilization

have been 115%, 111% and 116% respectively.

The year had been a challenging one with RINL being confronted with a host of problems;

the raw material crisis and the demand on increased maintenance due to ageing equipment,

being more pronounced. Despite these hurdles, performance was satisfactory and the

conscious efforts to improve the value added Steel paid dividends. The production of value

added Steel at 1.89 Million tons registered a 74% improvement over previous year and was

62% of the total Saleable Steel, the best since inception.


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1.4 MAJOR PRODUCTION UNITS AND SERVICE UNITS

There are 10 major production units and 28 service units in the steel plant.

Major Production Units

1) Raw material Handling Plant (RMHP)

2) Coke oven & Coal Chemical Department (C&CCD)

3) Sinter Plant (SP)

4) Calcining & Refractory Material Plant (CRMP)

5) Blast Furnace (BF)

6) Steel Melting Shop (SMS)

7) Light & Medium Merchant Mill (LMMM)

8) Medium Merchant & Structural Mill (MMSM)

9) Wire Rod Mill (WRM)

10) Roll shop & Repair Shop (RS&RS)

Service Units:

1) Thermal Power Plant (TPP)

2) Air Conditioning Systems (ACS)

3) Central maintenance-electrical (CME)

4) Central maintenance-mechanical (CMM)

5) Civil Engineering Department (CED)

6) Electrical Repair Shop (ERS)

7) Electro Technical Laboratory (ETL)

8) Energy Management Department (EMD)

9) Engineering Shops & Foundry (ES&F)


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10) Environment Management system (EnMD)

11) Field Machinery Department (FMD)

12) Instrumentation Department (INSTN)

13) Information Technology Department (ITD)

14) Maintenance Management Systems (MMS)

15) Plant Design (PD)

16) Power engineering maintenance (PEM)

17) Production Planning & Monitoring Department (PPM)

18) Quality Assurance & Technology Development (QATD)

19) Raw Materials Department (RMD)

20) Refractory Engineering Department (RED)

21) Safety Engineering Department (SED)

22) Scrap & Salvage Department (SSD)

23) Spare Parts Cell (SPC)

24) Technical Services Department (TSD)

25) Telecommunications Department (TELE)

26) Traffic Department

27) Utilities Department

28) Water Management Department


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CHAPTER 2

WARE HOUSE


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RAW MATERIAL HANDLING PLANT (RMHP):

Ware house consists of Raw material handling Plant receives the basic raw materials required

for the steel making process from various sources through railway wagons and by road.

These are stacked by stackers and reclaimed by reclaimers and distributed to various

departments of steel plant through conveyor system.

The Iron ore Fines, Iron ore Lump, Sized Iron ore, Limestone, dolomite, Sand, Quartzite and

manganese Lumps are Stacked in coal yard. Coke is sent directly to Blast Furnace after

tippling from ore and flux wagon tipplers.

The raw materials are sent to various departments as indicated below:

Sinter Plant : Iron ore fines, Limestone, Dolomite, Sand & LD Slag.

Blast Furnace : Sized Iron ore, limestone, LD slag, Manganese Lump,

Quartzite & Coke.

SMS : Dolomite, Sized Iron ore, Dolo chips.

CRMP : Limestone, Dolomite, Dolo chips.

TPP : Crushed Boiler Coal.

COCCP : Imported Coking Coal, Medium Coking Coal.

The Raw Material Handling Plant is divided into two sections:

1) Coal Handling Plant

2) Ore Handling Plant

The facilities available in two sections are

COAL HANDLING PLANT ORE HANDLING PLANT

Two wagon tipplers Three wagon tipplers

Five ground and ten track hoppers Ten ground and track hoppers

Ten stock beds Twelve stock yard beds

Boiler coal crushing plant Lump ore crushing plant

Stackers, reclaimers & stackers cum

reclaimers

Lump ore screening plant

Reclaimers conveyors Reclaiming conveyors

Stacking conveyors Stacking conveyors


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SALIENT FEATURES OF RMHP

Peripheral unloading system for railway wagons coming directly up to pushers.

Blender reclaimers for blending of ores and flux in which the bucker wheel has a

lateral motion across the bed.

Wheel on boom reclaimers for reclaiming different materials from same bed in ore &

flux yard and same type coals in CHP.

Two ring granulators for crushing of boiler coal.

Three blender reclaimers for blending for blending of iron ore fines and flux.

PLC control of all systems.

Drier for drying SMS sized ore.

Preparation of sized iron ore for use in BF to enable close size range of raw materials.

Dust extraction system is provided at various locations of RMHP to absorb the dust

generated during the process.

Raw materials sent to various departments are

PLANT RAW MATERIALS

Coke Ovens Imported coking coal, medium coking coal and primary coking coal

Thermal Power Plant Boiler coal

Sinter Plant Iron ore fines, limestone, dolomite, sand and LD slag.

Blast Furnace Sized iron ore, limestone, manganese lump, quartzite lump, coke,

sponge iron, pellets and LD slag.

Steel Melting Shop Sized iron ore and dolomite.

CRMP Limestone and dolomite.

RAW MATERIALS SPECIFICATIONS

The different raw materials are stored in the beds of stockyards and ground hoppers and track

hoppers and their identification, color and sizes as follows.


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SL NO MATERIAL SIZE

1

.

SMS Limestone returns 25mm.

2

.

Limestone(BF grade) 6 to 40mm.

3

.

Dolomite (BF grade) 6 to 80mm.

4

.

Manganese lump 40mm.

5

.

Sand and Quartzite lump 0 to 3mm

6

.

Sized i ron ore 10 to 50mm

7

.

Iron Ore Lump 150mm

8

.

Iron Ore Fines 10mm

9

.

Limestone (SMS grade) 50mm

10 Dolomite (SMS grade) 50mm

11 Coke 10 to 60mm

12 Quartzite Lump 10 to 30mm

13 Sponge Iron 3 to 20

14 Pel l ets 20mm

15 LD Slag 10mm

-BF&SMS 10 to 30

MAXIMUM STORAGE CAPACITY AND NUMBER OF STOCK PILES IN RHMP

Material No of stock piles &

Approx size

(M)

Storage capacity

(days)

STOCK

Tons Cum

Lump Iron ore 2-150*30*11.70 24 116,039 47,636

Iron Ore Fines 3-325*30*11.72 32 343,543 163,592

Sized Iron ore 2-170*30*11.70 44 133,907 54,656

Limestone

sintering 2-90*30*10.90 40 39,613 24,758

Calcining 2-14*30*10.90 47 97.165 60,728

Dolomite

Sintering 1-90*30*10.90 40 65,773 41,108

Calcining (flux

grade)

1-70*30*11.70 48 19,806 12,379


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Manganese ore 1-70*30*11.70 44 22,489 9,778

Sand 1-50*30*11.00 35 7,574 5,410

Boiler coal

2-290*30*5.50

2-290*60*5.50

30 135,850 169,812

Imported

coking coal

5-290*50*8.00

2-290*25*8.00

50

312,396

390,495

Medium

coking coal

1*290*60*8.00 43 72,640 90,800

Unloading Facilites:

Facility Numbers Provided

Ore & Flux Coal

Rotary Wagon Tippler 3 no‟s and 1200 tph 2 no‟s and 850 tph

Wagon Pushers 6 no‟s 4 no‟s

Track Hopper 10 no‟s & 155m3 each 1 set

Ground Hopper 10 no‟s & 155m3 each 1 set

Transfer Car 1 no 1 no


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CHAPTER 3

PROCESSING

PLANTS


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There are 8 processing plants in the steel plant.

1) Coke Oven and Coal Chemical Department

2) Sinter Plant

3) Calcining and Refractory Material Plant

4) Blast Furnace

5) Steel Melting Shop

6) Light and Medium Merchant Mill

7) Medium Merchant and Structural Mill

8) Wire Rod Mill

3.1 COKE OVEN AND COAL CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT

Coal Preparation:

From the storage yard, the coking coal is sent to foreign material removing section

to remove foreign matter of above 150mm size. Iron traps for ferromagnetic articles

and cylindrical screens are provided for this. For averaging and proportioning of coal ,

16 no‟s of bins each 800 tons of capacity are provided along with continuous action

feeders of up to 100 tons per hour capacity each. The crushing s carried out in

reversible hammer crushers 2 operating and 1 standby. The crushed and blended coal

is conveyed to two coal towers each of 4000 T capacity. Weigh bridges are

provided under coal towers to weigh the coal charge. System of pneumatic blow

down of blends provided i n the coal tower to take care of jamming of coal.

Battery:

The prepared coal charge in the coal tower is drawn by a charging car on the top of

the batteries and charged into the ovens as per sequence. The charged coal is

gradually heated by the heating was of the oven in the absence of air to attain a

temperature of 1000-1050o C at the central axis of the coke mass towards the end of

coking period. The coking period is generally specified between 16hrs and 19hrs

depending on oven condition and product on requirement. The volatile matter


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of coal is liberated during carbonization is collected n gas collecting mains in the

form of raw coke oven gas passing through stand pipes and direct contact cooling with

ammonia liquor spray. The residual coke is pushed out of the oven by pusher car

through a guide into coke bucket. The red-hot coke is taken to coke dry cooling

plant for cooling.

There are 3 batteries, each having 67 ovens. Each oven can ho d 32 tons of dry

coal charge. The volumetric capacity of each oven is 41.6 m3.

COKE DRY COOLING PLANT:

There are three coke dry cooling plants, each having four chambers. Capacity of each

chambers 50-52 TPH. Each coke dry cooling plant consists of cooling chambers with

individual after and lifting shaft, waste heat boiler, dust catching arrangements and smoke

fan.

The cooling chamber has two technological zones. Red-hot coke is charged into the upper

zone where cooling takes place in lower zone by circulating gases. Gas is forced by

smoke fan into distribution channels in the lower part of the chamber and fed into the

cooling zone. The gas flows upwards and gets heated. Circulating gases enter boiler,

cyclones and returned to bottom part of cooling chamber by smoke fan.

The coke is cooled from 1000 - 1050 oC to 180-200 oC where the circulating gases are

heated from 160-180 oC to 600 li 800 oC. The cooled coke from the cooling chamber is

discharged on to the conveyor continuously through a rotary discharging system.

COKE SORTING PLANT:

From the dry cooling plant, coke is discharged into de dusting units by conveyor. De dusting

units are provided with equalizing bunkers and belt feeders to compensate for irregularity of

coke discharge from dry cooling plant.

From the de dusting unit, coke is conveyed to crushing section. It is first separated

into +70mm and -70mm fractions. The +70mm fraction is fed to two roller-toothed

crusher (2nos. each of 120 TPH capacities).

The crushed product along with -70mm fraction is conveyed to screening plant where

25to70mm and 0to25mm fractions are separated using roller screens. 25to70mm coke


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is conveyed to blast furnace. Bunkers of 600 tons capacity are also provided for loading

i nto wagons J trucks and dumpers for sending to yard.

0 to 25mm fraction is fed to vibrating screens provided to separate into nut coke (10

to 25 mm size) and breeze coke (0 to 10mm). Nut coke is sent to blast furnace and

breeze coke is sent by conveyor to Sinter Plant.

The by products are Ammonia, Tar and Benzoyl.


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3.2 SINTER PLANT

SINTERING:

Sintering is a process of Agglomerating iron ore fines into a porous mass by nc p ent

fus on caused by combust on within the mass of the ore particles.

HISTORY OF SINTERING:

Iron ore fines (0-10 mm) which were a result of mechanized mining could not be

charged in a Blast furnace because they reduce the permeability of burden in a blast

furnace. These iron fines that were generated at mines could not ignored because of

their huge quantity and High iron content.

To use these fines effectively in a Blast furnace many processes were developed. Sintering

being one of them and widely in integrated steel plants.

Raw materials used in sintering:

1) Iron ore fines (0-10 mm)

2) Coke - used as fuel

3) Limestone & Dolomite - to maintain required sinter basicity

4) Sand - to maintain required sinter basicity

5) Metallurgical wastes - to use wastes effectively and thus reduce the cost of sintering

6) Lime - to enhance the process of sintering

Sintering process

1) Preparation of various raw materials.

2) Mixing & Blending.

3) Mixing with sinter returns in presence of water to form green balls.

4) Charging on to the machine.

5) Ignition and suction.

VSP SINTER PLANT-OVERVIEW:

Sinter plant of VSP has the capacity to produce 5.256 MT of sinter per annum, which will

cater for 80 % of I ron bearing feed to Blast furnace. Two Sintering machines of Dwight


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Lloyd type having 312 M2 total grate area are provided for this purpose. Sinter

machine is designed to operate at the rate of 1.2 T/hr/M2 for 330 days in a year.

Sinter plant consists of the following main sections

1) Flux crushing section

2) Fuel storage yard

3) Coke crushing & Flux screening sect on

4) Receiving bins

5) Raw material bins

6) Material Mixing & Distribution Plant

7) Base mix yard

8) Secondary sinter mix & Pe et s ng P ant

9) Sinter machine building with Sinter cooling

10) Fan building

11) Slime-dewatering pump house

12) Sinter Screening Plant

13) Gas Cleaning Plant

14) Air Cleaning Plant


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3.3 CALCINING AND REFRACTORY MATERIAL

PLANT

CRMP i.e. Calcining & Refractory Materials Plant is an integrated unit of

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant. This plant plays a significant role in the manufacturing

of liquid steel. The main customer of CRMP is Steel Melting Shop (SMS).

Calcining has two units.

CALCINING PLANT:

Calcining plant produces lime and calcined dolomite, which are used for refining of

hot metal to steel in the converter. This plant has 5 rotary kilns of 325 tons/day

capacity.

Lime is produced by Calcining limestone and calcined dolomite is produced by

Calcining dolomite. Limestone is procured from Oman & Thailand and Dolomite (SMS

grade) from Madharam mines of VSP. The size of both the raw materials is (25 - 60)

mm. Both the raw materials are received and stacked at RMHP. RMHP reclaims

these materials and conveys to LSDS (Limestone & Dolomite Screening Plant) via a

stream of conveyors. LSDS has two screens of 25mm size (VS6 & VS7) to screen out

the m nus fraction from raw mater a s. The -25mm size is sent to RMHP for use in

Sinter Plant. The +25mm size

Limestone is stored in bunker 5 and +25mm dolomite is stored in bunker 6. These

materials are then conveyed to the stone bins of all the kiln by operating the weigh

feeders below the two bunkers. Limestone and dolomite are charged to separate kiln.

The materials from the stone bin flows by gravity into the preheater. Material inside

the preheater gets preheated by the hot flue gas coming out of the kiln and is then

charged into the kiln by activation of hydraulical l y operated rams. The feeding of

raw material into the kiln can be varied by regulating the frequency of the ram

pushing.

The fuel used for firing of the kiln is PCM (Pitch Creosote Mixture). This is supplied

by CCP (Coal Chemicals Plant) through pipelines. This fuel is stored in four tanks in

pump house. Pump house pumps the fuel to the kilns through PHF unit (Pumping,


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Heating & Filtering Unit) of each kiln at 4-5 kg/cm2 pressure. This fuel generates a

temperature of 12500C - 13000C inside the kiln to calcine limestone & dolomite.

The product of the kiln, i .e. lime and calcined dolomite are discharged to a contact

cooler provided for each

k i l n . The cooled product is discharged and sent to the Flux Storage Building.

Lime and calcined dolomite are screened and stored separately in Flux Storage

Building. There are two 10mm screens in FSB as SMS requires +10mm size on y.

The stored material is then sent to SMS as per demand. The-10mm size is sent to

Briquetting plants, Sinter Plant, PCM, Water Treatment Plant and to outside sales.

The hot fuel gas coming out of the rotary kiln is passed through the preheater, cyclone

and bag filter by ID Fan. Dust, carried by the hot gas, is separated in cyclone and bag

filter and stored in dust hoppers and dispatched to Sinter P ant by pneumatic tankers. The

clean gas is then let off through chimney.

BRICK PLANT:

Brick plant produces Pitch Bonded Magnesia Carbon Bricks for lining of Converters

and Steel Ladles. Total twelve shapes of bricks are currently produced: - CD1 to CD8

and LB1 to LB4.

The main raw materials of brick are Sea Water Magnesia (SWM) and Fused Magnesia

(FM). Sea Water Magnesia is imported from Ireland and Israel. Fused Magnesia is imported

from China. Graphite Flakes is used as additives and Aluminum Powder is used as anti-

oxidant. Liquid pitch is used as binder, which is supplied by COCCP by tankers. In mill

house, SWM is crushed, ground and screened into different sizes of (0-0.2), (0-0.5), (0.5-

1.6), (1.6-3) & (3-5) mm and stored in separate blending bunkers. Graphite & aluminum

powder are stored in separate blending bunkers. These fractions of SWM and additives are

collected by scale car from blending bunkers n predetermined quantities and discharged

into mixer. Pitch is added during mixing and mixing is done as per set mixing program.

The mixer temperature is maintained between 1400C and 1800C.


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The Brick Plant has two 1600 T capacity hydraulic presses to press these bricks. After

pressing the green bricks are p aced on take-off belt. The green bricks are lifted from the

take-off belt and placed on a tempering pallet manually. Pallet filled with the green bricks is

then placed on a tempering car. The tempering of bricks is done at a temperature of

2500C. The tempered bricks are then packed in polythene covers and stored in Brick

store. These bricks are dispatched to SMS as per requirement of SMS and RED.


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3.4 BLAST FURNACE

BURDEN HANDLING AND FURNANCE CHARGING:

Burden materials are received in the stock houses, one for each furnace through a

junction house. Coke is handled by two conveyors (one standby) 0±1600mm width and

350TPH capacity, sinter, lump ore by two conveyors (one standby) of 1400 iron width

and 800TPH capacity, Sized ore and additives will be handled by one reserve conveyor

of 1500mm width and 800TPH.

Junction house has a cross over through rolling reversible conveyor and stationary

reciprocating conveyor. For each furnace, there are 5 bins for sinter, 5 bins for coke, 3

bins for lump ore, 1bin for nut coke, 3 bins each for limestone/LD slag and quartzite

used Silica bricks and manganese ore.

Coke, sinter and iron ore are screened in screens upto 400m3/hr capacity to remove the

fines. The screened material is fed to then inclined conveyor for burden handling to top

through a horizontal conveyor. Conveyors for burden handling to top are of 2000mm

Width 62160m3/hr capacity and are operated continuously. The materials are positioned

in conveyor in separate batches at certain intervals and in a certain sequence as per

preset programme. PLC systems provided for batching, weighing and feeding of the

burden to the furnace top.

The Paul wurth, bell loss top system is installed for furnace charging. The system

consists of two bunkers of 47 cubic meter capacity each, charging moving hoppers

rotating trough. All drives are hydraulically operated except for trough rotation and

tilting which are electrically operated. Semi clean BF gas and nitrogen are used for

pressure equalization in charging bunkers. Nitrogen is used for cooling rotating trough

drive and for blowing off stock bin gates and sealing valves of charging arrangement.

Mechanical gauge rods are provided for measuring stock level.

Exhaust station and air cleaning plant are provided for handling system. The exhaust air

is directed to electrostatic precipitators (2nos) for cleaning. The plant capacity is

3.65x10m3 hr. The dust content of air is reduced from 2.85 gm/cum to 0.1gm/cum,


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200tons of dust is collected every day. The dust collected is balled in granulation plant

and is automatically transported in trucks to Sinter plant.

The burden handling system premises are hydraulically flushed600m3/hr water). Total

effluents generation is 600m3/hr. After primary settling, the water is pumped to sinter

plant for further use.

HOT BLAST STOVES:

There are four hot blast stoves for each furnace with a total heating surface of

224,000m2. The dome can be heated to a temperature of 1450 C maximum while the

waste fuel temperatures up to 400 C. The stoves are capable of giving a blast

temperature upto 1300 C. Stoves are heated by a mixture of blast furnace gas and coke

oven gas having a calorific value of 1,100Kcal/N cum. Pressure of mixed gas before

burners is 600mm W.C.

Gas mixing stations provided to mix BF gas, CO gas in required proportion and to get

the necessary calorific value. Separate stations are provided for each furnace. Mode of

operation

Of stoves in successive (staggered parallel also can be operated).

High temperature zone is lined with scilica and mullite corundum refractories, medium

temperaturezone, with kaoline refractors and low temperature zone with fire clay

refractores. The shell of dome and cyndrical part is heat insuated with a heat proof gunnite

concrete in high temperaturezone. Gaps between shell and walls are filled with mats from

fibrous materials. Checker-work is lined with hexahedral refractors with round cells of 41

mm dia. Combustion chamber is in-built construction of elliptical shape. The chimney is of

80 m high, 3.5m diameter at the mouth. It is of reinforced concrete and fire clay lined. Stack

for back drought is made of metal with refractory lining. Air supply for burners is

centralized. Three fans (one standby) of 120,000 m3/hr, 1080 mmwc capacity each are

provided for the purposes. Water cooling arrangement has been provided for cooling of hot

blast valves and burner cutoff valves.

FURNACES:

Two blast furnaces of 3,200m3 useful volume, each capable of producing 1.7MT of hot

metal per year while operating for 350 days are installedThe lower part of the hearth


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bottom is lined with graphitized carbon blocks while upper parts with high refractory

mullite bricks in the center and with carbon blocks in the periphery. Side was of the

hearth are lined with carbon blocks in lower part and alumino silicate bricks are used for

lining of bosh, belly and shaft. Furnace top is lined with non cooled steel slabs of

suspended construction, when on cooled cast iron slabs are used for furnace dome.

Insulation layer was provided between slabs and shell of dome.

Lower part of the hearth bottom is air cooled. Peripheral cooling plates are used for

cooling of upper part of hearth bottom, hearth, tuyerezone, bosh, belly and lower part of

shaft. For middle part of the shaft, peripheral plates with independently cooled

projections are used. There are 664 cooling plates. Besides, there are 32 breast coolers,

32 tuyere coolers, 32 tuyeres and 8 nozzles in furnace dome. The water requirement for

coolings 5555m3/hr (6475m3/hrmax.) per furnace at 80mmwc. Clean re circulating

water with suspended matter upto 50mg/litre is used.

The hot metal is discharged into 140T hot metal ladles by rocking runners in cast house.

Hot metal ladle cars are moved by a car pusher. At every notch a notch opening

machine and an electric gun is provided. The cast house is circular in shape and two

circular cranes 20/5+5 T and a circular platform (5m width) for maintenance and

observation of tuyers stocks also provided.

There are 16to20 casts in a day. Cast house has good aeration. Provision has been made

for gas and dust exhaust from iron notches, skimmers, rocking runner covers and from

housing of the drum of the conveyor from burden handling to top. Four mill fans (one

standby) of 160,000m3/hr capacity and 900kgf/cmz pressure and two exhaust fans

(1standby) of 492000m3/hr capacity and 430Kgf/cm2 pressure are provided. Dry

cleaning of the gas is carried out in electrostatic precipitators, two horizontal type three

fold precipitator is having needle type discharge electrodes and !S! shape collecting

electrodes C\2m height) ares provided. Dust is granulated and dispatched to sinter plant

by dump track. Clean gas is fed to chimney of 5m dia, and 100m height. The total

capacity of the plants 972,000nrVhr. Dust content is reduced from 2.5gms/n3 to

0.1gms/m3 .About 60T of dust is collected day from two precipitators.


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There are four railway tracks for hot metal transportation [two on either side] one

service sub track and one track for flue dust disposal. Independent running railway

tracks are provided for delivery of metal to each SMS. Two rail weigh bridges are

provided for weighing hot metal sent to SMS and PCM. For auxiliary freights,

automobile transport is provided. The furnace process control is computerized.

Four gas off takes run vertically from furnace dome, which are connected to each other

in pairs, firstly forming two vertical off takes and these two joining to form one central

vertical off take which is connected to adjust catcher of 12m dia through a down comer.

Dust catcher and gas pipe lines are lined with fire clay bricks. Moistening and discharge

of dust is carried out by a screw conveyor. The furnace can be separated from dust

catcher by 3,000mm dia cut off valve in upper part of the dust catcher.

CAST HOUSE SLAG GRANULATION PLANT:

The molten slag produced by the furnaces is fed to cast house slag granulation plant to

produce granulated slag. Two granulation plants are provided for each furnace

adjoining the cast houses on two opposite sides.

Slag is discharged from the furnace 16 to 20 times a day duration of each discharge

being up to 60 minutes. Each granulation unit comprises two process lines (one stand

by), designed to receive all slag through two iron notches. Each process line comprises

of one granulator, one slag air lift, one granulated slag dehydrator, one receiving bin

and water supply re-circulating system. Steam from receiving hopper is discharged to

atmosphere through a chimney.

The granulated slag from the dehydrator is discharged into an intermediate hopper and

from there it is fed to final storage through a conveyor system. The granulation of

liquid slag is done by water jets and the granulation water is delivered by dredged

pumps in a quantity of 2000 m3/hr at a minimum pressure of 5atm in the granulator.

Temperature of pumped water is around 90 degrees C. with an average suspended

matter content of upto 2 g/liter. Through put of make up water is 300m3 granulation

plant.


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For air lifting thickened pulp from receiving bin to separator, compressed air is used.

The handling granulated slag from both furnaces has a capacity of 600 TPH. Two

conveyor systems one acting as standby is provided.

The storage is open casting machines of 1700 TPD capacity are installed to treat off

grade metal and metal diverted due to stoppages in SMS. The machines can handle one

furnace production. Each PCM is served by a 75 T, overhead trolley to tilt the 140 T

hot metal Ladle. Pig weight is about 45 Kgs. Facilities for lime washing of moulds and

re-circulating water system for cooling the pigs, including a settling tank, is provided.

The cold pig from machines are collected in wagons and sent to open ganty pig iron

storage yard. The yard is of 300 x 40 m size and cold pigs are stored in separate lots

according to grade. Two 150 T Rail weigh bridges are provided to weigh outgoing

loaded wagons.


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3.5 STEEL MELTING SHOP

In steel melting shop of Visakhapatnam steel plant, LD process of steel making has

been adopted. The liquid steel obtained from LD process is cast into Blooms through

continuous Casting machines.

Steel melting shop is divided into two major sections.

1) Converter shop

2) Continuous Casting shop

Converter shop:

1) Bulk handling material section

2) Mixer shop

3) Converter bay

4) Scrap yard

5) Slag yard

6) Ladle preparation bay

Continuous Casting Shop:

1) Tundish preparation Bay

2) Argon rinsing station & IRUT & LF

3) Gas cutting machines

4) Bloom storage yard.

Mixer shop:

It is very difficult to supply the hot metal from blast furnace to the converter as per its

requirement, unless there is an arrangement for storing the hot metal in SMS. Mixer serves

this purpose. There are two mixers in SMS. The capacity of each mixer is 1300 Tons hot

metal. In mixer temperature of hot metal is maintained by burning coke oven gas with air.

The mixer vessel is in cylindrical form with two removable spherical ends. Length of the

vessel is 10.67 M and diameter is 7.64 M. The mixer is installed on a mixer platform and is

served by mixer crane. The main units of the mixer are shell assembly roller support tilting


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mechanism, hand brake, gas & air distribution system, installation of blower, lubrication

system, electrical system.

The average life of mixer is about 1.6-1.8 MT, lining duration is about 30 days. To reduce

abnormalities in LD steel making, blast furnace is supplying hot metal to SMS.

BULK MATERIAL-HANDLING SECTION:

The bulk materials used in converter shop of SMS.

Calcined Lime Dolo – used as flux in LD-converter.

Requirement 6-10 T as per heat weight and hot metal composition, iron ore lump – Uses gas

coolant in steel making.

Requirement 0.5 – 3.0 T as per blowing conditions.

Raw or calcined dolo – used to lining life of converter.

Lump coke – useful to pre heat the lining of newly lined converter.

One of the requirements for continuous casting process is that the liquid steel should be

killed. For this and to make different grades of steel, Ferro alloys coke breeze/petroleum coke

and aluminum are added in the ladle during taping of steel from converter to ladle.

CONVERTER BAY:

Hot metal contains different impurities above safe level which make Pig Iron brittle. But steel

is nothing but refined hot metal. Refining is only possible when things are in molten phase.

Refining is done by blowing oxygen in the LD converter charged with Hot Metal, scrap, flux,

iron ore etc. In this refining process temperature of liquid steel is kept at 1700 C. Different

grades of steel are made by adding various ferro alloys & additives in different quantities

during taping of liquid steel from converter to steel ladle.

Oxygen is blown in the converter through oxygen lance. It consists of three concentrically

arranged steel tubes with connecting branches for metal-flexible-hoses. Central pipe is for

supplying oxygen, intermediate pipe is for incoming cooling water and outside pipe is for

outgoing water. At lower part of lance there are 4 nos. convergent-divergent copper nozzles

symmetrically arranged at 17.50 to the lance axis.

During blowing LD gas is generated. This is a very poisonous gas because its main

component is carbon monoxide. LD gas cooling, cleaning and collection system comprises of

tube bar-tube type skirt, gas cooling hood and stack, closed over valve, flare-stack, gas holder


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etc. when the gas composition is acceptable it is recovered and collected in gas holder.

Unacceptable LD gas is discharged through flare stack.

SCRAP YARD:

Scrap is used as coolant. Scrap may be heavy or light. Light should be less than 1.5 M.

Sometimes cast pig iron is used as a scrap in case of shortage on steel scrap. Purpose of scrap

yard is to supply scrap to the converter periodically without any interruption following

equipments are available in scrap yard.

1) Scrap Box Transfer Car

2) Scrap Weigh Bridge

3) Scrap Box

4) Magnetic EOT Crane

Scrap should not have dust, moisture or water, grease, oil etc. generally 15 T of scrap is

charged in each heat.

SLAG YARD:

The slag generated in LD converter during refining of hot metal is collected in vessels called

slag pots. This slag is dumped in the pits which are present in slag yard. For doing so, slag

pots, slag pot transfer cars slag dump cars EOT cranes etc are needed.

LADLE PREPARATION BAY:

Ladles after prolonged use get worn out and need to be repaired. After one or two heats plates

for slide gate control mechanism for teeming liquid steel need to be changed or repaired. All

these and many other activities are done in ladle preparation bay. There are 26 steel ladles

and 4 hot metal ladles in SMS.

The bay will facilitate the following main functions.

Horizontal Ladle Stand - For slide gate fixing, plate changing etc.

Vertical Ladle stand - For heating ladle

Relining pits - For relining the ladles

Ladle Drier - By burning coke-oven gas, ladle is heated

EOT crane - To handle the ladle


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ARGON RINSING STATION:

The liquid steel which is taped from LD converter is not homogeneous in composition and

temperature. To make the liquid steel suitable for continuous casting purpose by making it

homogenous inert gas rinsing is done. Generally argon gas is used for this purpose. Both

bottom and top purging facilities are available. Bottom purging is superior than top purging.

When both are used at a time it is more effective.

In general 12 minutes rinsing is done. For all the 3 LD converters steel transfer car track, 3

ARS are available. In case of LD-2 steel transfer car track IRUT is installed along with steel

temperature rising, Argon rinsing is also done simultaneously to raise the temperature at

IRUT oxygen blowing is done and simultaneously Aluminum is added.

In ARS aluminum is also added for complete deoxidation and to increase Al% in liquid steel

to make it suitable for continuous casting purpose.

There is one furnace in ARS bay. In ladle furnace composition adjustment and liquid steel

temperature rising can be done. Simultaneously Argon rinsing is also done along with the

above said activities. In ladle furnace temperature of liquid is raised by electric arcing. There

are 3 graphite electrodes for this purpose.

When rinsing is over after achieving desired temperature and composition ladle covering

compound is added at the top of liquid steel in the ladle. This reduces heat loss from ladle.

TUNDISH PREPARATION BAY:

Tundish is a refractory lined container having 4 nozzles through which liquid steel is poured

in all 4 moulds of a C.C. machine at a time. Pouring of a liquid steel from tundish to mould is

controlled by stopper-rod mechanism. During casting tundish is placed over mould and below

steel ladle. Tundish maintains the constant ferrostatic pressure and it helps in floating of the

nonmetallic inclusions at the top layer of liquid steel and thus-metallic inclusions are

prevented from entering into mould.

In tundish preparation bay used tundishes are cooled bby water/compressed air and lining is

demolished. All the relining activities, stopper-rod assembly fixing are done in this bay.

GAS CUTTING MACHINES:

The strand which continuously comes from the copper mould after getting completely

solidified should be cut as per our requirement to facilitate easy handling etc. In order to cut

the blooms accurately a gas cutting machine using acetylene and oxygen is used.


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Since the bloom travels with certain speed the machine used for cutting the bloom should

travel along with the bloom. For this grippers are used which grips the bloom and travels

along with it taking the oxy-acetylene flame with it. Each CC machine has been provided

with 4 cutting machines to cut the four blooms at a time.


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CHAPTER 4

FINISHING

CENTERS


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Visakhapatnam steel plant has three sophisticated Rolling mills designed to produce 2.7

million tons /annum of finished products from continuously cast blooms with a wide range of

product mix.

The mills are:

1) Light and Medium Merchant Mill (LMMM)

2) Medium Merchant and Structural Mill (MMSM)

3) Wire Rod Mill (WRM)

Some of the salient features of the mills are:

1) High capacity and high speed

2) Automatic minimum tension control in stands

3) Double sided cooling beds of walking beam type

4) High capacity and high productive sawing lines.

5) Automatic bundling machines

6) Adoption of closed circuit TV at furnaces

7) Evaporative cooling systems and waste heat recovery

4.1 LIGHT AND MEDIUM MERCHANT MILL:

Keeping in view the latest developments the light and medium merchant mill is designed with

the operation floor on a second store elevation namely 5 mts. This arrangement has many

advantages. It provides better drainages for both lubricants and water mill scale. The oil

cellars can be placed at slightly below the ground level without deep excavations but ensuring

adequate drainage. The oil and water pipes and cable trenches are readily accessible.

Blooms for LMMM are placed on charging grids of 150 tons/hr capacity each by 16 tons

claw cranes. The blooms are then delivered to the furnace approach roller table by an inclined

elevator from bloom storage roller table.

The approach roller table is provided with a weighing scale, a tilter and disappearing stops.

The blooms are positioned in front of the furnaces and then pushed by hydraulic pushers on

to the charging skids of the furnaces. There are two nos of walking beam type furnaces of 200

T/hr capacity with double row charging. The blooms also can be discharged from the

charging side of the furnaces in case of emergency. Heated blooms are placed piece by piece


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by discharging devices on to the furnace delivery roller table. The blooms are de-scaled by

high pressure de-scaler.

In five box passes and one each of diamond and square passes the blooms are reduced to 125

mm square in the 7 stands. The finishing speed will be 1.3 to 1.6 mts/sec. A four crank shear

installed behind the mill stands is designed to crop both ends and to cut billet lengths as per

requirement of WRM & sales as per requirement to achieve optimum yield in cutting. Billets

feeding the LMMM are cropped at the front and back ends.

Normally one bloom is rolled for LMMM and the next one for the WRM alternately billets

are also aold. The billets for WRM and for sale are cooled on 2 turn over-type cooling base to

a maximum discharge temperature of 400 C. these billets are picked up by magnet cranes of

16 T capacity in the intermediate billet storage and transferred to the transfer grids in the

shipping area or dispatched for sale.

Billets after cropping by the 4 crank shear and having a length of about 32 mts are

transported to the in line 2 strand roller hearth furnace 0f 200 t/hr capacity. Billets normally

arrive at the furnace with a surface temperature of 1100 C. billets are heated to a discharging

temperature of 1150 C to 1130 C.

The continuous multi-line mill comprises 8 stand double strand roughing train 2 nos 4 stand

single strand finishing trains. Hoopers are provided in between the finishing stands for

tension free rolling in order to obtain good surface quality and tolerances. Housings are of

closed top type. Roll necks are mounted in anti friction bearings.

Shears for crooping and emergency cutting are arranged ahead of the first of roughing mill

stand and up stream of intermediate mills. Snap shears for emergency cuts only are ahead of

finishing mill. The rotating shears after the finishing mills crop the materials leaving at

rolling speed and cut into multiples of specified sales lengths.

The finished bar now enters the cooling stretches. The are two cooling stretches each

installed just downstream the last stand of the finishing mill. The purpose of the colling

stretches is to cool down the rebars to such an extent so as to produce desired mechanical

properties. It also serves to control the scale formation.


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The bar leaving the last stand of the finishing mill passes through a cooling stretch. The

cooling efficiency of this installation is such that a surface layer of the bar is quenched into

martensite the core remaining has been formed under the skin when the rebar leaves the

cooling stretch a temperature gradient is established in the cross-sections of the bar causing to

flow center to the surface which results in self-tempering of the martensite. Finally during

slow cooling of the rebar on the cooling bed the austenitic core transforms into ferrite and

pearlite. To achieve the required mechanical properties it is sufficient to maintain the

tempering temperature within a pre determined range.


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4.2 MEDIUM MERCHANT AND STRUCTURAL MILL

The medium merchant and structural mill is one of the modern rolling mills of

Visakhapatnam steel plant. It is the third and last rolling mill as per the rationalized concept.

This is a single strand continuous mill having production capacity of 8,50,000 T/yr. the

product mix of MMSM is shown

The important feature of this mill is that universal beams have been rolled first time in india

using universal stands. Parallel flange beams have advantage over conventional beams as per

the same weight the section is stronger and stiffer due to greater moment of inertia and higher

radius of gyration.


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The steel grades which can be rolled include mild steel, medium carbon steel, chromium

steel, spring steel, forge quality, bright bar quality and various structural steels. The quality

and tolerance of the finished products meet Indian and International standards. The mill is

designed to achieve 50% DIN tolerance.

PRODUCTION PROCESS:

Blooms charged on the charging grid are conveyed one by one to furnace approach roller

table which are weighed and charged to either of the furnaces in two rows. Heated blooms are

discharged singly and rolled in 20 stand continuous mill. The maximum speed of rolling is 9

m/sec. four crank shear behind finishing train divides the bar optimally to charge the divided

bar to either side of the cooling bed. After cooling the profiles which need straightening are

straightened by an in line straightening machine and are collected into layers on the collecting

bed. These layers are then fed to a cold saw line for cutting into desired saleable lengths.

Each saw line consists of one stationary saw and two movable saws which are suitable for

tandem cutting.

After saw cutting the bar layers are conveyed to a cross transfer where visual inspection is

done. Defective bars are tracked and piled/bundled separately. Rounds, angles and flats are

bundled by the bundling machine where as other profiles are formed into nested packets by

the piling machines. The packets/bundles are weighed and tagged with labels to identify the

product size, heat no. order no, quality etc. before dispatch/transferring to storage yard.


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4.3 WIRE ROD MILL

The wire rod mill of VSP is high speed 4 strand no-twist continuous mill designed to produce

8,50,000 T of wire rod coils. The mill is designed to produce plain wire rods from 5.5mm to

12.7mm dia and rebar in 8mm, 10mm and 12mm diameter in coil form. However sizes up to

14mm are being rolled presently. The mill is constructed at an elevated level of 5350mm.

Rolled billets of 125mm x 125mm square cross section, length ranging from 9.8 m to 10.4 m

and weighing approx 1250 kgs are used as input material. The mill is designed to roll steel

stock of 0.9% max.

The rolled billets received from billet mill are placed on charging grid I&II at zero level in

packet from with the help of electro magnet cranes. The billets are moved towards cross

transport by means of 4 rope operated pawl transfer. The charging grid I has AC drive and

charging grid II and transfer them to billet elevator. The billet elevator takes the individual

billets to mill floor level at 5.35 m. using billet transfer device and billet positioning device,

the packet of 4 billets are made on approach roller which are further carried to furnace entry

using another 4 groups of roller tables arranged in tandem.

After the billets are positioned in front of walking beam furnace, the walking beam of furnace

collects the billets from roller table and charge them into furnace. The furnace is combined

type walking hearth cum walking beam furnace of 200 T/hr capacity. The walking beam is

operated by 180 bar hydraulic pressure system. The furnace is approx 42M long and 11M

wide. The billets are heated to 1200 C gradually in 4 different zone using 60 flat flame roof

and 6 long flame burners at bottom soaking zone. The in-house mixed gas of calorific value

2000 Kcal/nm3 is used as fuel. The mixed gas and combustion air is preheated to 250 C and

520 C respectively. In recuperators before combustion at burners. The heating time approx 71

minutes and each walking beam cycle is 72 sec in which billet packets are moved by 900

mm. the furnace is equipped with waste heat recovery systems i.e gas & air recuperators. The

combustion products are let out into atmosphere through a 45 M high chimney. The complete

process control is done by microprocessor based instrumentation control system. Slight

positive and oxidizing atmosphere is maintained inside the furnace. The homogenously

heated billets are discharged by hydraulically driven discharging machine called peel bar into

groove of stand 1.


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A billet withdrawing machine is arranged furnace exit and stand 1. It uses pinch roll to feed

or return billets from or into furnace. The four shiftable position billet switch is provided in

front of withdrawing machine to feed four strands of mill individually. A 4 strand pendulum

shear and high pressure water descaler is arranged between billet switch and stand 1.

Presently these are taken out of operation.

The roughing mill comprises of seven continuous 4-strand two high horizontal strands. The

mil stand housings are of closed too design and roll are having morgoil oil neck hearing. The

rolls of 610 mm dia x 1000 mm length are used at stand no.1 to 5 placed at 21 housing and

rools of 490 mm dia x 920 mm are used in stand 6 & 7 placed at 16 housing. The primary

reducer secondary reducer and universal spindles are used to connect DC motor drive and

mill stand. The feed stock reduces to 46 mm square after reduction in each stand varies from

20-30%. The pass design is oval-round sequence and stand 7 is having square pass. The ovals

are twisted using twist roller guide at oval pass delivery and fed to round pass through roller

entry. At all other places static guides are used for guiding the stock to roll groove.

Four rotating crop and cobble shears are provided after 7 one for each line. The cold & spilt

front end of the bar head is cropped automatically before feeding to intermediate stand. In

case of disturbances in forward equipments/areas the shear chops the complete stock into

small pieces.

The intermediate group of stand comprises of 6 two high horizontal stands. Rolls of 490 x

800 mm are used in 16” housing for stand 8 to 10 and rolls of 375 mm x 700 mm are used in

12” housing at stand 11 to 13. Roll material is SG cast iron. Roll neck bearing is of morgoil

design. The stock is reduced to approx 23mm round and moves at about 5 m/sec after sstand

no 13. The primary reducers and universal shafts are used to connect DC mill drives and mill

stands. The roll pass sequence is oval-square and stand 13 is having round pass. The ovals are

twisted by twist roller guides installed at each oval delivery and fed to round pass using roller

entry guides.

At all other places, static guides are used for guiding the bar. All the twist guides and roller

entry guide rollers in roughing and intermediate mill are cooled by water & lubricated by oil-

air mixture. Roll passes in mill stands are cooled by water 3-4 kg/cm2 pressure. Material from

stand no 13 is fed to individual finishing lines using rod feed troughs.


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The 4-prefinishing blocks, one at each line, are installed ahead of stand 13. The rod feed

troughs guides the stock coming out from stand 13 to pre finishing block via horizontal

hooper. The pre finishing block is having one horizontal and one vertical stand enclosed in a

closed housing & driven by a one common drive. The stock size is reduced to approx 19 mm

round at this stage and speed goes up to as high as 8 m/sec. the tungsten carbide roll rings of

8” diameter are used in these stands for rolling of stock. These rings are mounted on a tapered

shaft at 400 bar hydraulic pressure.

A water cooling stretch named A1 water box is installed ahead of these pre finishing block to

facilitate partial cooling of stock before final rolling at finishing block. This facility is used

mainly during high carbon & rebars rolling for grain refinement & increased UTS in final

wire rod. Water cooling at 12 bars & air at 6 bar pressure for stripping of water droplets from

stock surface.

A crop & dividing shear is provided ahead of water cooling stretch to crop cold front end of

bar before feeding to finishing blocks. Also this gives a dividing cut to bar in the event of

trouble in equipments in forward stream and the bar gets diverted to a chopper located at

down 0 level with the help of 3-way diverter switch. There are 2 choppers installed which is

common for line 1 & 2 and line 3 & 4.

Horizontal looper is provided before 10 stand no twist finishing block. The looper ensures

tension free rolling. The loop height control is automatic through computer using signals

from loop scanners provided individually for all horizontal loopers.


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CHAPTER 5

DISTRIBUTION

CHANNEL


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The marketing department started its operations with 24 branch offices and stockyards in

various states are catering to the needs of the customers in various segments to have close co-

ordination and instantaneous decision making.

These are attached to 5 regional offices.

1) East

2) West

3) North

4) South

5) Nepal

There are 295 enterprising persons working in marketing department which enabled us to

achieve a productivity of more than 11,191 tons steel sales/man year. All the branch offices

and regional offices are fully computerized with client-server environment. The stockyards

are connected to Regional offices and Head quarters at vizag through a VPN for transmitting

data at high speed.

This helps in distributing 450 varieties of items from the manufacturing range of around 3500

varieties distributed in various stockyards to make available the right product at right time.

This has enabled lower inventory cost.

For effective material handling at stockyard, consignment agents/handling agents are

appointed on long term contract basics and as business partners. They take the responsibility

of unloading, transportation of material from siding to the stockyard, proper stacking,

accounting and delivery of the right material to the customer.

The material is moved to the stockyard by rail, but to improve our logistics, we are also

dispatching some quantities by road and CONCOR to serve our customers better. The

transporters are also our business partners playing very effective role. Movement of material

in containers to stockyards, wherever railways siding is not available is also undertaken by us

in moving the material faster to the place of consumption.


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The marketing setup was envisaged for selling Mild Steel products only in the initial stages

with our regular interactions with the customers from time to time at various levels like

CMD, Directors, Head Quarters level, Regional Level, Branch Level and visits of cross

functional teams, we could develop various grades of special steel products for marketing to

actual end-use segments. This has improved our net sales realization/Profitability to a large

extent.

We have developed almost all types of special steels like, En series, High carbon, EQ,

Chromium steels etc are also developing Boron steel for special applications.

Marketing Department of Vizag steel plant with all its modern and innovative marketing

tools is functioning at world class levels. This is evident from export of our products in more

than 25 countries enabling us to be a global player in steel marketing. The total gross sales of

Rs 8482 Crores during 2005-06 with a previous year by selling 3.30 million tons of steel.

The main activities of Marketing Department are as follows:

1) Collecting Market feedback and Customers requirements for the preparation of

Annual Plan in coordination with Works Department, for the sale of Pig Iron, Steel

and Byproducts

2) Preparation of Marketing Policies

3) Finalization of Long Term Contracts, MOUs, Spot Sale Agreements etc., in Domestic

and Export Markets

4) Preparation of Monthly Rolling Plans in coordination with Works Department for

meeting the sale commitments

5) Processing of Materials like straightening of Coils, Cutting, Bending, Bundling,

Packaging etc., at the Plant premises and in Branches to meet Customers‟ demand as

well as transportation requirements

6) Dispatch of products to various Stockyards by Road or Rail or to Customers from the

Plant on direct dispatch basis

7) Operation of the Contracts for Transportation of Products by Road and Stockyard

Handling/ Consignment Agency Contracts for Domestic Sales, Stevedoring Contracts

and third party inspection agency for Exports


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8) Sale of products at branches, Headquarters and on direct dispatch basis to the

Customers in domestic markets and on Ex-Works and Free of Road/Free of Rail

(FOR) Visakhapatnam basis in Exports subject to tying up of Commercial and

Financial terms and conditions. Ensure documentation as per the procedures and as

per the statutory requirements

9) Rendering after sales services, obtaining customer feedback and Customer Relations

Management.


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FUNCTIONS OF VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF RINL/VSP

Directorate of Operations

Production Planning and Control:

1) Formulation of long term production plans and infrastructure support.

2) Formulation of Annual and Monthly production plan. This involves detailed planning

for product mix and value added Steel along with Marketing Dept.

3) Analyzing Plant performance against targets on a periodic basis and taking necessary

corrective actions.

Techno-economics and Quality:

Formulation of Techno-Economic norms and Energy Management parameters and reviewing

the same against targets periodically.

Inputs and Basic Infrastructure:

1) Long term and short term planning for procurement of raw materials like Imported

Coking Coal (ICC), Medium Coking Coal (MCC), Boiler Coal, Iron Ore Fines and

Iron Ore Lumps etc.,

2) Formulation of Annual Inward and Outward Traffic movement plan for raw materials

and finished products in consultation with Marketing and Material Management

Departments.

Repairs and Maintenance Planning:

Planning of major Capital Repairs, Shutdowns, Spares requirement and ensuring

preparedness before taking up the repairs.


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Mines planning:

1) Formulation of annual and monthly production plans for BF Limestone, BF grade

Dolomite, Mg Ore and Sand at VSP Captive Mines.

2) Monitoring of production and dispatch of Limestone, Dolomite, Mg Ore and Sand

from Captive Mines.

Projects planning:

1) Long and short term planning for all developmental schemes of capital nature

comprising modernization and technology up-gradation.

2) Planning and implementation of Additions, Modifications and Replacement (AMR)

schemes.

3) Expansion of Plant Capacity from 3.0 Mt liquid Steel to 6.3Mt.

Research and Development:

1) Identification of Technological Improvement scopes for various processes and plan

for adoption

2) of them by acquiring design and know-how capability.

3) Indigenous development of technology involving laboratory investigation.

4) Development of new grades and products in coordination with Marketing

Department.

Information Technology:

1) Formulation of Organizational IT-Policy, IT-Security Policy and IT-Vision.

2) Identification of IT enabled projects for various processes and implementing the them.

Budget plan and control:

1) Identification of Budget requirement under various heads.

2) Control of the Budget and Spares, Consumables & Raw Materials Inventory.


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Systems and Procedures:

1) Streamlining the Contract Management System to ensure consistency of approach and

adoption of sound principles of contract management.

2) Ensuring the implementation and maintenance of quality management system

requirements for ISO 9001:2000 Certificate.

3) Monitoring pollution control activities of the Plant and interaction with the State and

Central Pollution Control Board.

Project Division

Design & Engineering Department:

1) Liaisoning with Consultants and Government Authorities in connection with designs,

specifications, approval of drawings and Liaisoning work for various types of

clearances.

2) Preparation of drawings, design and specification for AMR and Non-AMR jobs.

3) Assisting indenting departments in technical discussion with parties and preparation

of technical recommendation.

4) Layout clearances of various facilities coming in the Plant and Township.

5) Operation of Consultancy contracts.

Construction Department:

1) Exercising supervision of work at sites both for quality and quantity checks.

2) Preparation of Contractor‟s bills, processing of extra items and closure of contracts.

3) Liaisoning with Suppliers, MM department, Design & Engineering Department and

Stores in connection with progress of work at site.

4) Arranging interactive training sessions (PAT/FAT) with all concerned departments

like Works, Design, Consultants and Suppliers in terms of contract and handing over

the unit to Works Department for operation.


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Contracts Department:

1) Awarding of contract from the point on receipt of administrative approval from

indenting departments.

2) Conducting commercial discussions with parties.

3) Arranging Tender Committee meetings and preparing recommendations for awarding

work.

4) Preparing COM/Board Note for decisions at those forms.

5) Participating in claims and arbitration proceedings.

Project Monitoring Department:

1) To monitor the physical and financial progress of all the works executed by

Construction department.

2) To monitor the progress of works executed by D&E as well as Contracts department.

3) Preparation of various types of reports for information of Government and different

levels of Management.

4) Interaction with Departments and Consultant for updating the schedules and networks

for Project Monitoring.

Directorate of Finance & Accounts

1) Making arrangement for long-term fund requirements.

2) Accounting of all minority transactions and preparation of financial statement of the

Company and getting the same audited as required under law.

3) Maintaining records with regard to the cost of products produced by the Company.

4) Release of payments to suppliers/providers of goods and services.

5) Release of salaries to the Employees.

6) According concurrence to proposals for investments & expenditure as per the policies,

procedures and the Delegation of Powers.

7) Conduct Internal Audits, Stock Verification and Statutory compliance.

8) Making working capital arrangements.

9) Submission of periodical reports to banks as per their sanctioned terms.


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10) Organizing for payment of Central Excise, Sales Tax, Income Tax and other statutory

payments.

11) Co-ordination with statutory Auditors and Government Audit.

12) Generation of various MIS reports pertaining to F&A department for Management

Information and Control.

Directorate of Personnel

PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT:

1) Manpower Planning

2) Employees‟ Induction

3) Service Matters, Policy & Rules

4) Industrial Relations

5) Employees‟ Welfare

6) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

7) Replies to Parliamentary questions

8) Official Language Implementation

Legal Affairs:

Legal Affairs deals with all legal matters including Arbitration, Coordination with Standing

Councils, Legal Advices etc.

Management Services:

1) The activities that come under the purview of Management Services are

2) Quality Circle

3) Suggestion Scheme

4) Incentive Scheme


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5) Reward Scheme

6) Procedural Orders etc.

Training & HRD:

The activities that come under the purview of Training & HRD are

1) Leadership Training

2) Training on Motivation and Attitude

3) Team Building

4) Skill Training

5) Induction and Orientation

6) Plant Practice Lectures

7) Basic Engineering Lectures

8) Plant Specialized Training,

9) Management Development,

10) On the Job Training,

11) Multi Skills/SUPW and Mentoring.

Corporate Strategic Management (CSM):

CSM is the “think tank” of the organization. The Department is engaged in formulation of

VMO (Vision, Mission & Objectives) of the organization and developing the strategy to

achieve VMO. It has various wings which inter-alia include Knowledge Management Cell

(KM Cell). It has also developed the Corporate Plan of RINL. It takes up strategic tasks of

the organization.


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CONCLUSION

This report describes the Supply Chain Management and its use in the company. Any

company that is involved in the production of goods has a process which begins from

purchase of the raw materials to the finished goods and reaching the final products to the

market.

Many of the company have an effective Supply Chain Management so that they can reduce

their manufacturing cost and place their product at a competitive price in a short span of time.

This report describes the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant effective utilization of their raw

materials and also the by-products which are emitted during the process of the manufacturing

of the goods and also the effective transportation system that is involved in reaching their

product to the market.


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BIBILOGRAPHY

1) ORIENTATION TRAINING GUIDE FOR MANAGEMENT TRAINEES.

2) WEBSITE OF VIZAG STEEL PLANT - www.vizagsteel.com.

http://www.vizagsteel.com/

scm

Documents

shanmukha pavan tej

supply chain management

specific energy consumption

de dusting units

continuous casting shop

sized iron ore

wire rod mill

steel melting shop