ESL Steel plant

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ESL Steel plant, also known as ESL; Electrosteel Steels Limited, is a blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steel plant operating in Bokaro, Jharkhand, India.

Location

The map below shows the exact location of the plant in Bokaro, Jharkhand, India:

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• Location: Village: Siyaljori, PO.- Jogidih, Op.- Bangeria, PS.- Chandankyari, Dist.– Bokaro 828303, Jharkhand (INDIA)
• Coordinates (WGS 84): 23.632907, 86.293671 (exact)

Background

The ESL Steel Ltd plant began operating in 2006 under ESL Steel Ltd.

The plant has had a long history of encroachment allegations. Between March 2009 to 2017, the state forest department filed 53 cases against the company. In 2017, the forest department found that the plant was built on nationally-protected forest land. ESL had lied about the project site in its documents, according to the department's July 2019 inspection report. A Supreme Court-appointed centrally empowered committee had heard of the issue much earlier in 2010, but no action had been taken before.

In 2020, a group of employees protested outside and plant demanding better rights and compensation.

In September 2021, an accident at the plant killed three workers. In December 2022, four workers were injured during a fire incident at the plant.

In 2018, the plant had a planned capacity of 2.51 mtpa and a commissioned capacity of 1.5 mtpa. In an Expression of Interest dared August 2023, the company announced that the existing two 60 ton BOF units will be replaced by two new 65 ton BOF units. The company planned to expand the capacity of the plant from 1.5 mtpa to 3 mtpa in phase-I expansion within two years, and to 6 mtpa in the next phase. The expansion of hot metal capacity to 3 mtpa was expected to be completed in 2023 at an investment of US$ 348 million. In December 2018, the company announced that it will add a capacity of 4.5 mtpa at a cost of US$ 3-4 billion on top of the 2.51 mtpa. On 28 March 2022, Vendanta approved expansion of ESL Steel plant to 3 mtpa which will involve addition of a 1050 m³ blast furnace, 500 ttpa coke ovens, a 1800 ttpa pellet plant and an 800 tpd oxygen plant. The expansion also involves debottlenecking of blast furnace #3.

In July 2023, Vendanta announced its plans to sell the ESL Steel plant. In October 2023, it was reported that JSW Steel, ArcelorMittal and a few private equity funds were interested in acquiring the steel plant along with the iron ore mines, both subsidiaries of Vedanta Ltd.

Plant Details

Table 1: General Plant Details

Phase	Plant status	Announced date	Construction date	Start date	Iron ore source
Main plant	Operating	–	–	2006	Koira, Barbil mines
Expansion	Construction	2018	2023	–	–
Expansion	Announced	2018-12-25	–	–	–

Table 2: Ownership and Parent Company Information

Phase	Parent company	Parent company PermID	Parent company GEM ID	Owner	Owner company PermID	Owner company GEM ID
Main plant	Vedanta Ltd [100.0%]	4295872982 [100%]	E100001010756 [68.1%]	ESL Steel Ltd	4298544502	E100000130900

Table 3: Process and Products

Phase	Steel product category	Steel products	ISO 14001	Main production equipment	Detailed production equipment
Main plant	crude; semi-finished; finished rolled	billets; TMT bars; wire rods; ductile iron pipes; pig iron	2021-06-03 00:00:00	BF, BOF	2 BF; BOF; sinter plant; coke oven
Expansion	crude; semi-finished; finished rolled	billets; TMT bars; wire rods; ductile iron pipes; pig iron	2021-06-03 00:00:00	BF	BF (1050 m3)
Expansion	–	–	–	–	–

Table 4: Crude Steel Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*	Basic oxygen furnace steelmaking capacity	Nominal crude steel capacity (total)
Main plant	operating	1500 TTPA	1500 TTPA
Expansion	announced	–	–
Expansion	announced	–	4500 TTPA

Table 5: Crude Iron Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

*Please see our Frequently Asked Questions page for an explanation of the different capacity operating statuses.

Phase	Capacity operating status*	Blast furnace capacity	Nominal iron capacity (total)
Main plant	operating	1500 TTPA	1500 TTPA
Expansion	announced	1100 TTPA	1100 TTPA
Expansion	announced	–	–

Table 6: Upstream Products Production Capacities (thousand tonnes per annum)

Phase	Sinter	Coke	Pellets
Main plant	2900 TTPA	>0 TTPA	–
Expansion	–	500 TTPA	1800 TTPA
Expansion	–	–	–

Table 7: Actual Crude Steel Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	BOF Production	Total (all routes)
2020	–	–
2021	1190 TTPA	1190 TTPA
2022	–	–

Table 8: Actual Crude Iron Production by Year (thousand tonnes per annum)

Year	BF Production	Total (all routes)
2020	–	–
2021	1355 TTPA	1355 TTPA
2022	1367 TTPA	1367 TTPA

Blast Furnace Details

Table 9: Blast Furnace Details

Unit name	Status	Announced date	Construction date	Start date	Furnace manufacturer and model	Current size	Current capacity (ttpa)	Decarbonization technology	Most recent relining
1	operating	unknown	unknown	2012	–	350 m³	400	unknown	unknown
2	operating	unknown	unknown	2012	China Metallurgical International	1050 m³	1100	unknown	unknown
unknown	announced	2018	unknown	unknown	–	1050 m³	1100	unknown	unknown

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Steel Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.

Resources

• Company website