The Hindu Business Line : JSW Steel plans to carry ore in slurry form via pipelines

The details
"The cost of transporting iron ore through these pipelines would come to around Rs 20 for a distance of 200 km. All that is needed is high power positive displacement pumps. These would be underground pipelines running parallel to the national highways similar to water pipelines."

Advertisement

New Delhi Jan. 25 JSW Steel Ltd is planning to pioneer transport of iron ore in the form of slurry through pipelines directly to its steel plants. The company intends to lay two pipelines running parallel to the national highways.

One pipeline would carry iron ore from Orissa to its proposed steel plant in the Midnapore, West Bengal, while the second would carry the ore from Jharkhand to the same plant.

The 207-km Orissa-Midnapore pipeline and the 130-km Jharkhand-Midnapore pipeline will merge at a point where the ore from the two locations will be mixed. These would then be carried to the plant by another 70 km pipeline, Mr Sajjan Jindal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, JSW, told Business Line.

According to Mr Jindal, there are several steel manufacturers worldwide that use pipelines to carry iron ore to their plants and the cost of transport is minimised by using this method.

"The cost of transporting iron ore through these pipelines would come to around Rs 20 for a distance of 200 km. All that is needed is high power positive displacement pumps. These would be underground pipelines running parallel to the national highways similar to water pipelines," Mr Jindal said.

"In the West Bengal Raniganj belt, the company is getting four coal blocks. Two coking coal blocks with extractable resources of around 120 million tonnes and two thermal coal blocks with approximately 200 million tonnes of reserves. These would last around 30-50 years," he said.

Mr Jindal said that the company would be tying up with existing private miners in Orissa and Jharkhand for supply of iron ore to ensure that any delay in allotment of captive mines does not delay its plant.

"In the first phase, a capacity of 3 million tonnes is planned by 2010. We would also be importing ore since the two ports, Haldia and Paradip, are close to the proposed site at Salbuni in West Bengal," he said.

In the long run the company plans to increase its steel making capacity to 31 million tonnes by 2020 with an overall investment of Rs 85,000 crore.

More Stories on : Outlook | Steel | Minerals

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page