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Part - V

Most of the existing sponge iron plants are either gas based or coal based viz Ispat Industries, Jindal Steel & Power, Monnet Ispat, Tata Sponge Iron, Essar Steel etc. With the discovery of new gas reserves and LNG supply through the Hazira Bijapur Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline it has made the steel from these plants cheaper and of good quality. Most of these players are planning for expansions in capacities though towards coal based plants, as there is higher availability of coal in the regions of Orissa and Jharkhand. The new capacities would take the total installed capacity from the present 8.8MT to 12.8MT in the next three years. The demand for sponge iron by the year 2007 is projected to be 9.5MT. The competition from scrap is likely to be less intense in the years to come, as steel makers will increasingly resort to sponge iron route for steel making. The demand of sponge iron is mostly from Electric Arc Furnaces and Induction Furnaces. India with a high number of sponge iron companies that have expertise in this field can become a dominant player in this field and in the near future it will start exporting sponge iron in the form of pellets or briquettes to global companies.

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* Contributed by: -
Amit Chaddha,
B.E. (Metallurgy), MMS (Marketing),
School of Management Studies,
MNNIT Allahabad.