India's Essar Steel has started operations at its 6mn t/yr iron ore pelletisation plant in Orissa's coastal town of Paradip.
The pellet plant is connected via a 253km, 12mn t/yr slurry pipeline to a beneficiation plant in Keonjhar, also in Orissa. It is also connected via a 9.5km conveyer belt to an exclusive berth for Essar at Paradip port. The company has invested around $1bn in setting up the integrated facility.
With the commissioning of the Orissa plant, Essar's total pelletising capacity is 14mn t/yr, with an 8mn t/yr pellet plant already in operation at Vizag in south India.
Essar said it will soon complete the expansion of the Paradip pellet plant to 12mn t/yr, along with upscaling the beneficiation plant. It makes sense to expand in Orissa, the company said, given it is the country's largest iron ore producer that has a large output of lower grade iron ore fines.
Essar currently has the largest pelletising capacity in India, aiming to become one of the largest pelletisers in the world with the commissioning of its 7mn t/yr US pellet plant in Minnesota and the additional 6mn t/yr capacity at Paradip. These expansions will take Essar's total pelletising capacity to 27mn t/yr, tying with Sweden's LKAB as the third-largest global pellet producer behind Brazil's Vale and Samarco.
Essar uses part of the pellet production for its 10mn t/yr Indian steel plant in Gujarat state, but sells the rest in domestic and overseas markets. India's pellet exports have been hit since the imposition of a 5pc export duty in January this year.
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