50 Manufacturing Companies – Essar Steel

Innovation is an integral part of Essar Steel’s existence. Under Make in India, our R&D has developed special steels for our land and naval defence  – armour steels with ballistic properties for tanks, combat vehicles, guns, military and passenger vehicles, steel plates for warships and specialised steel plates for submarines. The ballistic steel has  been tested at national as well as labs in Germany and USA.
Essar Steel Plate Mill is one of the most modern plate mills in the world. The capability of the mill, however, is restricted to produce a thickness of 5mm only. There is a demand for wide plates in lower thickness for armour and wear resistance applications. Last year, we came up with an ingenious innovation whereby thinner and wider plates can be rolled out. This technique enhanced the capability of the plate mill on lower thicknesses such that it can to roll plates with thicknesses down to 3mm in 3.5 metre widths. It has been used for the first time in any plate mill in the world and Essar has also filed for a patent.
The size of the market makes India a strategic location for foreign firms to set up local R&D centres. Given the risk factor involved in R&D, the Indian government offers financial incentives on equal terms. It reduces product development costs and helps the company achieve a quicker time gap between ‘concept’ and ‘go to market’. Foreign companies find a advantage in establishing R&D centres in India.
The objective of R&D in our organisation is to create value. We strive to develop innovative steels and niche products – many of them are import substitutes – be it automotive, high strength structural, oil & gas, boilers and pressure vessels, wind energy, shipbuilding, yellow goods and defence.
We are working on the technology development to reclaim iron ore values from ultra-fine fractions that are discarded as waste. We are also breaking new ground in technologies to refine and upgrade low grade coal to high grade clean coal and use the dust generated from the process. Essar Steel utilises 100% of the solid waste generated in the plant and is now a “zero waste” company.