AM/NS India starts CR substrate plant for automotive sheet

The PLTCM is the latest but arguably most crucial piece of equipment the JV has commissioned since the two global giants decided in March 2018 to jointly acquire bankrupt Indian integrated steelmaker, Essar Steel and expand Essar's Hazira plant.

AM/NS India outline

Source: Nippon Steel

The mill has a rated capacity of 1.92 million t/y and was built by UK-headquartered, Japanese-invested plant builder Primetals Technologies, as Mysteel Global has reported.

"The facility is designed to support the manufacturing of advanced automotive steel for Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS), Galvannealed (GA), Galvanised (GI), and Press Hardened Steel (PHS) applications, having an edge over other mills in the country (and) providing end-to-end solutions to all automotive companies," AM/NS India declared.

"The new unit will contribute to meeting the growing demand for high-quality, value-added automotive steel in India, which currently stands at 7.8 million tonnes per annum for flat steel and is projected to grow by 6-7% annually. As India rapidly emerges as a global automotive powerhouse – already the world's third-largest automotive producer with aspirations to become the second-largest – the need for world-class steel to support premium and technologically advanced vehicles is becoming more critical," it added.

Last week's inauguration of the PLTCM came about a year after two new downstream mills that will need the mill's cold-rolled coil substrate were commissioned, namely a Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL) – a 500,000 tonnes/year unit making either galvanized or galvannealed grades for autosheets – and a 1 million/ t/y Continuous Galvanizing and Annealing Line (CGAL).

The CAGL can produce corrosion-resistant steel coils processed with aluminum-silicon coating "particularly suitable for AHSS applications in corrosive environments," according to Belgium engineering firm John Cockerill, supplier of the lines, as Mysteel Global reported.

Hazira's existing hot-strip mill will supply hot-rolled coil to the new PLTCM line, Primetals had said at the time of winning the contract. "After pickling, the coil will either be processed as hot-rolled pickled and oiled steel or sent to the tandem cold mill for cold rolling," it said, adding that the mill can produce steel grades ranging in width from 900 to 1,890 mm – about the same maximum width of cold coil that the two new autosheet lines will accommodate.

AM/NS India is in the process of expanding crude steel capacity at Hazira from the current 9 million t/y to 15 million t/y, as reported, with work on the expansion expected to be completed within this year. Though Nippon Steel is the minor partner in the JV, the PLTCM was clearly its responsibility. Japan's ambassador to India, Keiichi Ono, officially inaugurated the plant on Thursday.

AM/NS India Profile

Source: Nippon Steel

AM/NS India (existing facilities/capacity)

Source: ArcelorMittal

AM/NS India Hazira Works expansion plan (main facilities)

Source: Nippon Steel

Moreover, in an interview with Japan's Tekko Shimbun in April last year, Nobuo Okochi, Nippon Steel's managing executive officer, was candid. "We have received a large amount of loans from Japanese banks for our investments so far, and we are working on the development of India on an all-Japan basis," he commented. AM/NS India recently announced that Okochi has been appointed Chief Financial Officer for the JV with effect from July 1.

Okochi is having a busy year. On March 23, he joined Indian government officials and ArcelorMittal Executive Chairman Lakshmi Mittal at the groundbreaking ceremony for the venture's ambitious integrated steel plant project in Rajayyapeta in Andhra Pradesh state in eastern India.

The two-phase Andhra Pradesh project will eventually have a capacity of 17.8 million t/y and will cost an estimated $16.6 billion, as reported. When the project was first announced in November 2024, Phase 1 capacity was to be 7.3 million t/y and Phase 2 adding 10.5 million t/y. However, in the 18 months since, AM/NS India has tweaked these capacities, with the first phase to host 8.2 million t/y and the second 9.6 million t/y.  Phase 1 operations are planned to commence by end-2028 or early 2029, according to ArcelorMittal.

"In addition to the ongoing capacity expansion at the Hazira Steel Plant in Gujarat, AM/NS India will capture future growth in steel demand in the Indian market through the (Andhra Pradesh plant) project and further strengthen its market presence," the company said in a statement after the groundbreaking.

"With an excellent coastal location and proximity to the existing slurry pipeline that enables easy connection to one of India's richest iron-ore deposits, it will be one of the lowest-cost, most competitive plants in India," it added.

What steel items the Andhra Pradesh plant will produce and in what quantities is yet to be clarified.

Written by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com 

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com