• Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Primetals Technologies to collaborate on green steel projects and technology at steel plant in Rourkela, India
• Important strategic move for the evaluation of decarbonization solutions across integrated steel plant portfolio

On February 20th, Primetals Technologies and leading Indian steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to closely collaborate on projects and technologies related to decarbonization at the plant located in Rourkela, Odisha, India. The signing ceremony took place at the executive director’s office of SAIL’s Rourkela Steel Plant.

SAIL’s Rourkela steel plant has a strong focus on decarbonization as one of its priorities in order to future-proof the production processes, and is therefore currently looking for solutions to lower its carbon footprint. The partnership with Primetals Technologies is a key strategic move in this endeavour.

A full-fledged provider of green production solutions

Primetals Technologies is the market leader in environmental and energy-efficiency solutions for the metals industry and has established an organization dedicated to green steel technologies and the transformation into a greener steel industry. Primetals Technologies will work closely with SAIL’s Rourkela location, providing expertise across the green ironmaking and steelmaking value chain, including but not limited to carbon capture and utilization (CCU), digitalization, hydrogen-based steel production, electric steelmaking, and advanced gas-cleaning solutions.

Leading plant building expertise

“We are very happy to partner with SAIL and the Rourkela steel plant for its transition into green steel production,” said Norbert Petermaier, Executive Vice President of Sales at Primetals Technologies. “The metals industry is currently moving quickly in terms of efforts to decarbonize. As the global front runner, Primetals Technologies will support and assist the SAIL Rourkela steel plant in the best possible way based on our proven expertise in green ironmaking and steelmaking solutions. And, as part of the larger Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, we also have at our disposal profound knowledge in technologies related to carbon capture and utilization.”

“The SAIL Rourkela steel plant is happy to get associated with Primetals Technologies on our endeavor to cut down the carbon emissions in order to meet our overall target of becoming net-carbon neutral,” said Sharad Raghunath Suryawanshi, Executive Director (Works) of SAIL’s Rourkela steel plant, on the occasion of the MOU signing ceremony. 

The SAIL Rourkela location is a leading steel plant in India and the world. The Rourkela facility alone has an annual crude steel capacity of 4.2 million tons. The plant’s product portfolio is wide-ranging and comprises: prime plates, hot rolled coils, cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanized sheets, cold rolled non-oriented (CRNO) electrical steel, electric resistance welded (ERW) pipes, spiral welded pipes, and special plates to serve the defense sector.

Biswadeep Bhattacharjee, Vice President of Sales and Head of Green Steel India at Primetals Technologies, and Sharad Raghunath Suryawanshi, Executive Director (Works) at SAIL’s Rourkela steel plant, during the contract signing ceremony.