The need of the hour in infrastructure construction projects is technology that delivers in terms of higher efficiency and precision and lesser cost and time and consumes less steel.
Thus, long products players are focusing on innovations to deliver along such parameters, as was revealed at a recent SteelMint webinar on “Indian Long Steel: Short and Medium Term Outlook – Can There be Another Price Hike in TMT & Wire Rods by Primary Mills?”
JSW Steel, a major supplier of long products to the infrastructure sector, on its part, is looking to graduate to a higher strength rebar – from Fe500 to Fe550D or Fe600 and beyond, informed Sanjay Agrawal, Senior VP, JSW Steel. Speaking at the webinar, Agrawal said, JSW Steel’s mills are capable of producing these and that the company recently shifted to producing the Fe550D category.
“We intend to produce that (Fe550D) in masses … so that infra EPC contractors can save on steel and get a benefit out of it,” Agrawal said.
As far as the Fe600 range is concerned, Agrawal said Fe600D is not part of BIS now but the company is pursuing the issue with BIS for inclusion of the same in the approved list of specs. He also mentioned that JSW Steel is supplying “that category of material” for two bridge projects as of now, one of which is the Goa Zuari bridge. “Fe600DCRS, which is equivalent to that material, is being supplied by us. We are looking for more projects and all infra companies can use this material and save in terms of steel,” he said.
Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) manufactures only the 550D category and is the largest supplier of the same. It only manufactures the 500D category in small quantities, on request, Subimal Sarmah, Head of Sales, TMT (E&S) & Cement, JSPL, informed during the webinar.
However, he added that, despite being the largest producer of Fe550 and the push for greater usage of the category, designs are based on Fe500.
Substantial cost saving can be achieved on the structure itself since Fe550 can make it lighter.
Sarmah said JSPL has invested in setting up three cut and bent facilities, in Angul, Patradu (Ranchi) and in Raigarh which together supply 10,000-18,000 tonnes of cut and bent rods.
Sarmah also said JSPL has coupled rebar orders with cement in the eastern states of Jharkhand Odisha, Bihar and Bengal, offering value addition in terms of supply chain.
Pre-casting is the way forward
The infrastructure players are the largest consumers of long products and J Kumar InfraProjects is a key player in this space. It has handled mega projects ranging from flyovers, bridges, roads, dams & canals to urban infrastructure, underground metro and railways.
Speaking at the webinar from the user-segment’s standpoint, Nalin Gupta, Managing Director, J Kumar InfraProjects, said pre-casting is the need of the hour for urban constructions. “Though it is high precision work and technically challenging, if done properly, pre-casting is the need of the time since it involves less labour at the site level and offers a safer environment, can work at greater heights, and one can do the pre-casting in one’s yard,” Gupta informed. Importantly, pre-casting involves lesser cost and time.
J Kumar InfraProjects has opted for pre-casting in all the Metro Rail projects it is handling. Almost the entire metro stations are being pre-cast. In the process, Gupta said, what was previously more labour-oriented has now become more mechanised through the use of self-supporting structures and heavier cranes which can reduce the timeline.
Gupta further said J Kumar InfraProjects has been using Fe550 category steel. However, echoing Sarmah, he rued that rebars are traditionally designed keeping in mind lower capacity parameters. “But now we have used 550 and 600 ranges which are good enough where TMTs are concerned,” he added.
— by Madhumita Mookerji
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