Tata Steel to start commercial production at new Kalinganagar plant in H2FY15

Kolkata: Tata Steel expects to start commercial production at its greenfield steel unit at Kalinganagar in Odisha in the second half of the current year. The new unit is a three million tonne plant is expcted to increase the company's production capacity, widen its product portfolio and diversify its customer base.

The company said after receiving all necessary clearances the heating of the coke ovens commenced in the second week of May 2015. The project will follow a commissioning schedule over the next six months as each facility gets commissioned. With the commissioning of the new steel plant, Tata Steel will see its total steelmaking capacity go up to 13 mt in India.

Commenting on it after the company's consolidated financial results ended March 31, 2015, T V Narendran, Tata Steel managing director for India and South East Asia said in a statement: "We are focused on implementing our three million tonne per annum (mtpa) greendfield expansion at Kalinganagar, Odsha which we expect to commission this year.

In addition, the first phase of our Gopalpur ferrochrome plant will start operation by October 2015." The project is coming up at a time when India's steel market is going through low growth with demand from key infrastructure sector slowing down. Last year, Tata Steel created a separate company, Tata Steel Odisha, to carry out the project. It had lined up over Rs 22,000 crore as project financing with a consortium of banks and financial institutions.

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