Iron and industries in

The iron and steel industries are among the most important industries in India. During 2014 through 2016, India was the third largest producer of raw steel. In 2019, India became the 2nd largest steel producer in the world after China and the largest producer of sponge iron in the world. The industry produced 82.68 million tons of total finished steel and 9.7 million tons of raw iron. Most iron and steel in India is produced from . Most of the public sector undertakings market their steel through the (SAIL). The Indian steel industry was de- licensed and de-controlled in 1991 and 1992 respectively.

Location of industries

• Location of industries is influenced by several factors like access to raw materials, power, market, capital, transport and labour, etc.

• Relative significance of these factors varies with time and place. There is strong relationship between raw material and type of industry.

• Industries using weight-losing raw materials are located in the regions where raw materials are located.

• The sugar mills in India are located in sugarcane growing areas.

• Similarly, the locations of pulp industry, copper smelting and pig iron industries are located near their raw materials. • In iron and steel industries, iron ore and coal both are weight-losing raw materials. Therefore, an optimum location for iron and steel industries should be near raw material sources.

• This is why most of the iron and steel industries are located either near coalfields (, , etc.) or near sources of iron ore (Bhadravati, , and ).

• Similarly, industries based on perishable raw materials are also located close to raw material sources.

• Power provides the motive force for machines, and therefore, its supply has to be ensured before the location of any industry.

• However, certain industries, like aluminium and synthetic nitrogen manufacturing industries tend to be located near sources of power because they are power intensive and require huge quantum of electricity.

• Markets provide the outlets for manufactured products. Heavy machine, machine tools, heavy chemicals are located near the high demand areas as these are market orientated.

• Cotton textile industry uses a non-weight-losing raw material and is generally located in large urban centre, e.g. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, etc.

• Petroleum refineries are also located near the markets as the transport of crude oil is easier and several products derived from them are used as raw material in other industries.

• Koyali, Mathura and Barauni refineries are typical examples. Ports also play a crucial role in the location of oil refineries.

• India, being a democratic country aims at bringing about economic growth with balanced regional development.

• Establishment of iron and steel industry in Bhilai and Rourkela were based on decision to develop backward tribal areas of the country.

The iron and steel industries

• The other raw materials besides iron ore and coking coal, essential for iron and steel industry are limestone, dolomite, manganese and fire clay.

• All these raw materials are gross (weight losing), therefore, the best location for the iron and steel plants is near the source of raw materials.

• In India, there is a crescent shaped region comprising parts of , Northern , and western , which is extremely rich in high grade iron ore, good quality coking coal and other supplementing raw materials.

TISCO

• The Tata Iron and Steel plant lies very close to the Mumbai- railway line and about 240 km away from Kolkata, which is the nearest port for the export of steel.

• The rivers Subamarekha and Kharkai provide water to the plant.

• The iron ore for the plant is obtained from Noamundi and Badam Pahar and coal is brought from mines in Odisha. Coking coal comes from Jharia and west Bokaro coalfields.

• Before 1947, there was only one iron and steel plant in the country - Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO). It was privately owned. After Independence, the government took the initiative and set up several iron and steel plants. • TISCO was started in 1907 at Sakchi, near the confluence of the rivers Subamarekha and Kharkai in Jharkhand.

• Later on Sakchi was renamed as Jamshedpur. Geographically, Jamshedpur is the most conveniently situated iron and steel centre in the country.

• Sakchi was chosen to set up the steel plant for several reasons. This place was only 32 km away from Kalimati station on the Bengal-Nagpur railway line.

• It was close to the iron ore, coal and manganese deposits as well as to Kolkata, which provided a large market.

• TISCO, gets coal from Jharia coalfields, and iron ore, limestone, dolomite and manganese from Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

• The Kharkai and Subamarekha rivers ensured sufficient water supply. Government initiatives provided adequate capital for its later development.

IISCO

• The Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) set up its first factory at Hirapur and later on another at .

• In 1937, the Steel corporation of Bengal was constituted in association with IISCO and set up another iron and steel producing unit at Bumpiir (West Bengal).

• All the three plants under IISCO are located very close to Damodar valley coal fields (, Jharia, and Ramgarh).

• Iron ore comes from Singhbhum in Jharkhand. Water is obtained from the , a tributary of the Damodar. • All the plants are located along the Kolkata- railway line. Unfortunately, steel production from IISCO fell considerably in 1972-73 and the plants were taken over by the government.

Visvesvaraiya Iron and Steel Works Ltd. (VISL)

• The third integrated steel plant, the Visvesvaraiya Iron and Steel Works, initially called the Mysore Iron and Steel Works, is located close to an iron ore producing area of Kemangundi in the Bababudan hills.

• Limestone and manganese are also locally available. But this region has no coal. At the beginning, charcoal obtained by burning wood from nearby forests was used as fuel till 1951.

• Afterwards, electric furnaces were installed which use hydroelectricity from the Jog Falls hydel power project. The Bhadravati river supplies water to the plant. This plant produces specialised and alloys.

• After independence, during the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61), three new integrated steel plants were set up with foreign collaboration: Rourkela in Odisha, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and Durgapur in West Bengal.

• These were public sector plants under Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL). In 1973, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) was created to manage these plants.

Rourkela Steel Plant

• The was set up in 1959 in the Sundargarh district of Odisha in collaboration with Germany. • The plant v/as located on the basis of proximity to raw materials, thus, minimising the cost of transporting weight losing raw material.

• This plant has a unique locational advantage, as it receives coal from Jharia (Jharkhand) and iron ore from Sundargarh and Kendujhar.

• The Hirakud project supplies power for the electric furnaces and water is obtained from the Koel and Sankh rivers.

Bhilai Steel Plant

• The was established with Russian collaboration in District of Chhattisgarh and started production in 1959.

• The iron ore comes from Dalli-Rajhara mine, coal comes from Korba and Kargali coal fields.

• The water comes from the Tanduladam and the power from the Korba Themal Power Station.

• This plant also lies on the Kolkata-Mumbai railway route.

• The bulk of the steel produced goes to the Hindustan Shipyard at Vishakhapatnam.

• Durgapur Steel Plant, in West Bengal, was set up in collaboration with the government the United Kingdom and started production in 1962.

• This plant lies in Raniganj and Jharia coal belt and gets iron ore from Noamundi.

• Durgapur lies on the main Kolkata- railway route.

• Hydel power and water is obtained from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

Bokaro Steel Plant

• This steel plant was set up in 1964 at Bokaro with Russian collaboration.

• This plant was set up on the principle of transportation cost minimisation by creating Bokaro-Rourkela combine.

• It receives iron ore from the Rourkela region and the wagons on return take coal to Rourkela.

• Other raw materials come to Bokaro from within a radius of about 350 km.

• Water and Hydel power is supplied by the Damodar Valley Corporation.

Other Steel Plants

• New steel plants which were set up in the Fourth Plan period are away from the main raw material sources. All the three plants are located in South India.

• The Vizag Steel Plant, in Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is the first port based plant which started operating in 1992. Its port location is of advantage.

• The Vijaynagar Steel Plant at Hosapete in Kamataka was developed using indigenous technology. This uses local iron ore and limestone. The in was commissioned in 1982.

Current steel plants in India

There are more than 50 iron and steel industries in India. Given below are major steel plants: Name Location Operator

Jindal Steel and Power

Raigarh, Chhattisgarh JSPL

Limited

Jindal Steel and Power Angul, Odisha

Limited

Tata Steel Limited Jamshedpur, Jharkhand

Tata Steel Limited Kalinganagar, Odisha Tata Steel

Visvesvaraya Iron and

Bhadravati, Karnataka SAIL

Steel Plant

Durgapur Steel Plant Durgapur, West Bengal SAIL

Bhilai Steel Plant Bhilai steel city, Chhattisgarh SAIL

Bokaro Steel Plant Jharkhand SAIL

Chandrapur Ferro Alloy

Chandrapur, Maharashtra SAIL

Plant

IISCO Steel Plant Asansol, West Bengal SAIL

Salem Steel Plant Tamil Nadu SAIL Rourkela Steel Plant Odisha SAIL

JSW Steel Hospet, Bellary, Karnataka JSW Steel

Visakhapatnam, Andhra

Vizag Steel

Pradesh Limited

Essar Steel India Limited Hazira, Gujarat

JSW Steel Tarapur, Boisar, Maharashtra JSW Steel

JSW Steel Dolvi, Dolvi, Maharashtra JSW Steel

The iron and steel industry in India is organised into three categories: main producers, other major producers, and secondary producers. In 2004-05, the main producers i.e. SAIL, TISCO and RINL had a combined capacity of around 50% of India’s total steel production capacity and production. The other major producers — ESSAR, ISPAT and JVSL — account for around 20% of the total steel production capacity.

Production (in million tonnes) The steel industry in India was de-licensed and decontrolled in the years 1991 and 1992 respectively. In 2014-15, production for sale of total finished steel (alloy + non-alloy) was 91.46 million tonnes, a growth of 4.3% over 2013-14. Production for sale of pig iron in 2014-15 was 9.7 million tonnes, a growth of 22% over 2013-14. India is the largest producer of sponge iron in the world with the coal-based route accounting for 90% of total sponge iron production in the country. Data on production for the sale of pig iron, sponge iron and total finished steel (alloy + non-alloy) are given below for last five years. Production (in million tonnes)

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Category -11 -12 -13 -14 -15

5.37 6.87 7.95 9.69 Pig Iron 5.68 1 0 0 4

Sponge 25.0 19.6 14.3 18.2 20.3 Iron 8 3 3 0 8

Total 68.6 75.7 81.6 87.6 91.4 Finished 2 0 8 7 6 Steel(alloy + non- alloy)

National steel policy

National steel policy – 2005 has the long-term goal of having a modern and efficient steel industry of world standards in India. The focus is to achieve global competitiveness not only in terms of cost, quality, and product-mix but also in terms of global benchmarks of efficiency and productivity. The Policy aims to achieve over 100 million metric tonnes of steel per year by 2019-20 from the 2004- 05 level of 38 mt. This implies an annual growth of around 7.3% per year from 2004-5 onward.

The strategic goal above is justified because steel consumption in the world, around 1000 million metric tonnes in 2004, is expected to grow at 3.0% per annum to reach 1,395 million metric tonnes in 2015, compared to 2% per annum in the past fifteen years. China will continue to have a dominant share of the demand for world steel. Domestically, the growth rate of steel production over the past fifteen years was 7.0% per annum. The projected rate of 7.3% per annum in India compares well with the projected national income growth rate of 7-8% per annum, given an income elasticity of steel consumption of around 1.

Subsequent steel policies have been drafted each year. The Indian Ministry of Steel has released draft National Steel Policy (NSP), 2017. The problems identified in this sector include:

• Steel companies are plagued with huge debts.

• Lack of domestic demand. This is a major concern • Low quality of metallurgical coke for iron making.

• High input costs.

• Cheap imports from China, Korea and other countries are also a matter of concern for domestic producers.

The aim of the draft NSP is to develop a self-sufficient steel industry that is globally competitive. The policy proposes setting up Greenfield Steel Plants along the Indian coastline under the Sagarmala Project. This has been proposed in order to tap cheap imported raw materials such as coking coal and export the output without incurring huge cost burden. The policy has also proposed the idea of gas- based steel plants and use of electric furnaces in order to bring down the use of coking coal in blast furnaces. The policy targets to achieve production of 300 million tonnes by 2030-31.

Iron Ore reserves (in descending order)

1. Karnataka

2. Odisha

3. Jharkhand

4. Chhattisgarh

Iron Ore production (in descending order)

1. Odisha

2. Goa 3. Karnataka

4. Chhattisgarh

Jharkhand

The iron ores here exist as hill masses which are close to coal fields. The iron ore generally occurs at the top of the hills, iron ore mining companies use aerial ropeways for bringing down the ore and pumping it into the railway wagons standing near the foot of the hills. The major iron ore mining areas in Jharkhand are Noamudi, Gua, Jamda and Kiriburu.

Chhattisgarh

Exploitable rich iron deposits are located in Dalli-Rajhara region of (close to Bhilai Steel Works), Bailadilla region of district, Arindogi region and Raoghat region.

Odisha

The major iron ore mining centre is in Singhbhum district. The districts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh also form the richest reserves of quality iron ore. The iron ore available here is Hematite which has about 60-70 percent metallic iron content. The iron ore from these sites is supplied to the iron and steel factories located at Rourkela, Jamshedpur, Asansol and Durgapur. The ore is also exported to different countries through the Paradip port. Goa

The major iron ore mining centres are Sanguem, Safari, Ponda, Sahqualim, Bicholim and Quepem. The iron ore found in Goa is of high quality. The mining centres are located close to the port of Marmagao. The mines are worked by open- cast methods. They are close to rivers which enter the sea near the port. The iron ore is brought by road to jetties on the navigable rivers from which it is taken away to port for onward journey.

Karnataka

In Karnataka, the major iron ore mining areas are Baba Budan Hills, Kudremukh region, Hospet, Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur district. Iron-ore mined in Bellary and Hospet area is transported to Hospet from where it is sent to the ports of Chennai and Marmagao through railways for export to other countries.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra produces a very small amount of iron ore. Major mining ore areas include Chandrapur, Ratnagiri and Bhandara districts.

Andhra Pradesh

Iron ore is mined in small quantities in districts of Karimnagar, Warangal, Cuddapah, Kurnool, Adilabad and Anantapur. Tamil Nadu

In Tamil Nadu, the areas where iron ore is mined are Tirthamalai Hills in Salem district and Yadpalli and Killiomalai areas in Nilgiris.