The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has registered one of its best ever production performances in February this year.

The steel plant made 1,82,007 lakh tonne of Hot Metal in February 2010 by utilising 118.6 percent capacity which was the best February (28 days) performance, while its plate mill rolled 40244 tonne of plates using 175.5 percent capacity, again highest for any February, RSP sources said.

The steel plant has also registered growth of 9.6 percent, 11.7 per cent, 15.4 per cent, 200.8 percent and 20.2 percent over February 2009 in the production of Sintes, Hot Metal, Total Crude Steel, Plate mill plates, ERW Pipes and Spiral Weld Pipes respectively, the sources said.

The best ever monthly coke rate of 527 kg per tonne of hot metal was another highlight of February 2010. The steel plant has achieved one more noteworthy performance in the field of converter lining life in its SMS-II where a lining life of 5559 heats was registered in one of the converters, which is the best ever performance in the history of Rourkela Steel Plant. .

With remarkable performance in February 2010, the steel plant has propelled the April-February production significantly.

The plant has registered the best ever first eleven months performance in Hot Metal (20,60,658 tons) total Crude Steel (19,34,731 tons) and HR coil for sale (6,92,260 tons).

The growth over the corresponding period of 2008-2009 has been 3.8 per cent in production of Sinter, 2.3 per cent in hot metal, 1.4 per cent in crude steel, 3.4 per cent in HR coil 6.5 per cent in CR sheets and coils, 1.7 per cent in Galvanised sheets and 3.2 per cent in CRNO.

Besides, in the field of techno-economic, the coke rate of 535 kg per tonne of hot metal, average Blast Furnace productivity of 1,414 tons per metre cube per day, coal to hot metal ratio of 8.974 and specific energy consumption of 6.990 Giga Calories per tonne of crude steel are the best ever figures achieved by the steel plant in the April- February period of any fiscal, the sources said.