A joint team of SAIL and Danieli Corus operational experts have successfully completed the performance test for the rebuilt blast furnace #1 at Rourkela Steel Plant, India. The furnace, as well as ancillary plant equipment, was rebuilt under a contract signed in 2014 – the BF having been enlarged to a 1710 m³ inner volume.

The furnace was commissioned earlier, but now was submitted to a final Performance Test, as agreed in the contract. For this test, a setpoint for a daily production of 2,700 tons of hot metal was calculated based on a variety of factors, such as the quality parameters of the available raw materials. This guaranteed value was not only surpassed, but the daily production rate of 3,415 tons of hot metal achieved during the test was an all-time record for the furnace, since its initial blow–in in 2018.

The rebuild of blast furnace #1 at Rourkela Steel Plant was part of the modernization program committed to by SAIL. Under this program, a fifth – 4,060 m³ – greenfield blast furnace also was built by Danieli Corus. With the new blast furnace #5, the rebuilt blast furnace #1 and the existing blast furnace #4, Rourkela Steel Plant has doubled its annual saleable steel output to 4 Mtpy from the previous level of around 1.7 Mtpy.