Salem Steel Plant (SSP), a unit of

Steel Authority of India Limited Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is a central public sector undertaking based in New Delhi, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Steel, Government of India with an annual turnover of INR 1,03,480 Crore (US$13 billion) for fisc ...

(SAIL), is a steel plant involved in the production of

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

. It is located along the Salem — Bangalore

National Highway 44 The following highways are numbered 44. Australia * Great Western Highway, Parramatta Road (Sydney) * Captain Cook Highway - Queensland State Route 44 (Regional) * Greensborough Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 44 * Manitoba Highway 44 * On ...

in the foothills of

Kanjamalai Kanjamalai is a hill located 14 km west of Salem District of Tamil Nadu, India. The estimated terrain elevation above sea level is about 1643 Iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extra ...

Salem district Salem District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The district is now divided into Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Namakkal as individual districts. Salem is the district headquarters and other major towns in the distri ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India. The plant has an installed capacity of 70,000 tonnes per annum in its cold rolling mill and 3,64,000 tonnes per annum in the hot rolling mill. It also has the country's first stainless steel blanking facility.

History

On 15 May 1972, the Government of India decided to set up a steel plant at Salem for the production of steel and strips of electrical, stainless and other special and mild steel. The construction started on 13 June 1972, after inauguration by then Minister of Steel and Mines

Mohan Kumaramangalam Surendra Mohan Kumaramangalam ( ta, சுரேந்திர மோகன் குமாரமங்கலம்) (1 November 1916 — 30 May 1973) was an Indian politician and communist theorist who was a member of the Communist Party of I ...

. The cost of first phase of the project was . It brought the latest technology in cold rolling to India at the time. The initial production capacity was 32,000 tones per annum (cold rolled stainless steel strips and wide sheets). Later on 26 March 1991, the second phase at a cost of was realised, increasing production capacity to 70,000 tones per annum. On 24 December 1993, a blanking line was commissioned with a capacity of 3600 tones blanks per annum. This was the first such facility to be established in India.

Production

Production facilities

The major facilities at the plant include * Steel Melting Shop * Cold Rolling Mill Complex * Hot Rolling Mill Complex * Stainless Steel Blanking Line SSP specializes in the production of cold rolled stainless steel in the form of coils and sheets. The raw materials are imported and also supplied by Alloy Steel Plant in

Durgapur Durgapur () is a planned tier-II urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the fourth largest urban agglomeration after Kolkata, Asansol and Siliguri in West Bengal ...

. The steel melting shop's annual capacity is 1,80,000 tonnes of slabs per annum. The hot-rolling mill and cold-rolling mill have capacities of 3,64,000 and 66,600 tonnes per annum respectively. SSP supplies steel to

BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India ...

Tiruchirapalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

, HMT,

Bharat Electronics Limited Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is an Indian Government-owned aerospace and defence electronics company. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications. BEL is one of nine PSUs under the Ministry ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and

Indian Telephone Industries ITI Limited, earlier known as Indian Telephone Industries Limited, is a central public sector undertaking in India. It is under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications , Government of India. It was founde ...

. Stainless steel is also exported to over more than 37 countries including Spain, UK, Japan, Germany and Switzerland. Between 1994 and 1995, around 41,500 tonnes to as many as 27 countries.

Achievements

The units of cold rolling mill complex was ISO 9002 certified in April 1993. The hot rolling mill complex received certification two years later. It received ISO 14001 certification, for its pollution free environment, from German RWTÜV in 1999.

Awards

* SAIL Corporate Award 1994-95 * Annual Safety Awards at Visakhapatnam – Ispat Suraksha Puraskar award * Ferrous Division of Indian Institute of Metals – National Sustainability Award 2007

References

{{Public Sector Undertakings in India Economy of Salem, Tamil Nadu Steel Authority of India Steel plants of India Salem, Tamil Nadu Economy of Tamil Nadu 1981 establishments in Tamil Nadu