Steel and engineering company Electrotherm has, for the first time in the country, introduced a new modular continuous casting machine for billet products for the secondary steel market.

The first of the machine, manufactured in the company's Gujarat facility, was installed at Sarwottam Ispat Ltd's plant near Hyderabad. It has a throughput capacity of over 15 tonnes per hour.

Electrotherm claims that the casting machine was almost half the price of the machines currently being used by the domestic secondary steel market. “The installed cost of a machine currently in operation is between Rs 3.5 and Rs 4 crore, but our machine can be installed at a cost of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore. These units are mainly aimed at small steel companies for cost effective production,” Mr Suneel Kulkarni, Executive Director of the company, told media persons here.

Another advantage is that these machines produce billets, which are superior to ingots in secondary steel making, he said.

Mr Rishabh Lath, Director of Sarwottam, said the company, which produces TMT bars, was looking for a billet caster to improve the quality of its products.

The Gujarat facility is designed to produce about a 100 modular casting machines a year. “This fiscal, we will produce about 50, with 20 projects already underway. Next fiscal we will go for full production. We will scale up capacity as demand rises,” Mr Bharat Tank, Country Head-Marketing, said.

Electrotherm feels that there is demand for at least 2,500 such units in the domestic secondary steel industry. There is potential for a surge in demand, as India's per capita steel consumption was about 40 to 45 kg, as compared to 250 kg in the developed economies.

It will also look at exporting the machines to the African, Middle East and Asian markets.

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