JSW Steel reorienting operations to align with climate change priorities

JSW Steel is undertaking a major reorientation of its operations as well as product mix to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and align with the country's climate change priorities On the portfolio mix, the company is focusing on environment-friendly products for packaging, electrical and appliance sectors. "As Government of India tightens pollution norms, it will become critical for steel industry manufacturing processes to undergo a dramatic change going forward," Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director of JSW Steel told media. On the operational front, it is setting up a 40 tonnes per hour (TPH) granulated slag crusher to double its current daily slag sand production to replace natural river sand in construction among other initiatives. "Last year we sold 2.87 lakh tonnes of slag sand as an alternate for natural river sand in construction and 4.5 million tonnes of granulated slag. The installation of the new granulated slag crusher will double our daily slag sand production," Vinod Nowal, Deputy MD, JSW Steel said. In financial year 2017-18, the company reduced its overall water consumption to 4.13 cubic metre per tonne of crude steel as compared to 4.57 cubic metre per tonne of crude steel during the previous fiscal.   Similarly, the company's total quantum of recycled and reused water increased to 17 million kilo litres (KL) in FY18 as compared to 10.3 million KL during the previous fiscal. The company has also ensured that all its manufacturing units adhere to 'Zero Liquid Discharge' policies by establishing processes and setting up equipment to maximiseutilisation of water. According to Nowal, reducing air emissions is a vital part of JSW Steel's climate change priority alignment. "We utilise all our gases either for making power or direct reduced iron (DRI). We have produced almost 3,200 tons of DRI, which are directly used in making steel," Nowal said and added the company has stopped purchasing petroleum products for use in steelmaking at its Vijayanagar unit. JSW Steel is making considerable investments to control air emissions. The company's Dolvi unit has set-up 13 Dust Extraction (DE) systems to control fugitive emission during the material transfer through conveyors. On the product mix front, the company is developing environment-friendly products with a focus on packaging and electrical sectors. "We are developing more and more products which are safe, sustainable and environment-friendly. Packaging and electrical sectors are a key focus area, where we are looking at increasing our capacities," Jayant Acharya, Director Commerial (Marketing & Strategy), JSW Steel said. Besides, the company is increasing its tin-plate capacity by six times while overall value added product capacity which includes electrical steel capacity will increase by 65 per cent. The company is also developing a lead-free steel product, which is expected to enhance the safety quotient of major applications.