Reiterating a strong commitment to sustainability and operational excellence, SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) registered its best-ever techno-economic performance in the financial year 2024-25.
The excellent performance is a result of sustained efforts in process optimization and efficient energy management. The measures helped the Steel Plant significantly reduce production cost and carbon footprint.
RSP recorded its lowest-ever Specific Energy Consumption at 5.92 Giga Calories per Ton of Crude Steel (GCal/TCS), surpassing the previous best of 5.984 GCal/TCS set in 2023-24.
Water efficiency also reached a new benchmark with Specific Water Consumption dropping to an all-time low of 2.98 cubic meters per ton of crude steel (m³/TCS), an improvement from last year’s 3.01 m³/TCS.
This achievement was supported by the successful commissioning of Treatment System-1 under the plant’s Zero Liquid Discharge initiative.
The Blast Furnaces of RSP also delivered record-breaking results, achieving their best-ever Coke Rate of 391 Kg per Ton of Hot Metal (Kg/THM), improving on the previous record of 415 Kg/THM set in the last fiscal year. Individually, Blast Furnace-5 and Blast Furnace-1 attained their best Coke Rates at 371 Kg/THM and 434 Kg/THM, respectively.
In terms of productivity, the Blast Furnaces set a new benchmark with a Shop Productivity rate of 2.31 Tons per Cubic Meter per Day (T/m³/Day), significantly higher than the previous record of 2.07 T/m³/Day achieved in 2016-17.
RSP also achieved a record Coal to Hot Metal ratio of 0.896, bettering the earlier best of 0.938 set in 2020-21. The plant also reported its highest-ever Total Metallic Input of 1103 Kg per Ton of Crude Steel, up from the previous best of 1113 Kg recorded last year.
Faced with a sharp decline in Net Sales Realization (NSR) and increasing input costs in recent months, these performance improvements were both timely and critical. The collective efforts across departments highlight RSP’s resilience, adaptability, and unrelenting focus on efficiency and sustainability.
