Bihar Sponge Iron Ltd.
Bihar Sponge Iron Limited (BSIL) is the first merchant sponge iron plant in India. The plant is located at Umesh Nagar, Chandil, in district Saraikela Kharsawan, 30 kms from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It produces Direct Reduce Iron (or sponge iron as popularly known) from indigenous iron ore and non-coking coal available abundantly in the area. Sponge iron is used as a raw material for making steel in electric arc furnaces and induction furnaces, substituting and supplementing indigenous and imported scrap.
The Company was promoted in the joint sector by Bihar State Industrial Development Corp. Ltd. (BSIDC), Modi Group, German Investment and Development Company (DEG) and International Finance Corporation (Washington) in technical collaboration with Lurgi Metallurgy GmbH, Germany. The plant is based on Lurgi’s SL/RN (coal based) process and is designed to produce 150, 000 tonnes of sponge iron per annum.
The implementation of this massive project started in June 1986 and was completed in record time. The project cost was $ 90 M at that time and was partly funded by IFC Washington. The plant started commercial production in July 1989. Today the Company is an industrial giant with investments worth Rs. 1 billion. Its production capacity is of 2.10 lakh metric tonnes per annum, with a strong support from over 500 employees. The Company has captive Power Plant of 5 M.W. BSIL has also won the recognition of “most efficient coal-based plant in India”.
