Economy & Market

Make in Steel 2020 seeks forging of stronger ties for growth

Published

6 years ago

January 3, 2020

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Given the long-term pipeline of infrastructure projects in India, the growth opportunity for the country’s steel sector is immense. But as it looks towards future expansion, the industry also needs to collaborate as well as imbibe new technologies and best practices to become a truly global force.

Collaboration, adoption of new technologies and focus on sustainable manufacturing practices will enable the Indian steel industry to become a global force, a cross-section of industry experts averred at the third edition of Make in Steel conference in New Delhi in February.

They also said that given the country’s need for new infrastructure projects and consistent GDP growth, the opportunities that would be created for all stakeholders were humongous.

Guest of honour, AK Khandelwal, Executive Director (TKMC), Railway Board, explained that developments like electrification of railways lines, construction of pedestrian bridges, and the introduction of high-speed railway and complete mechanisation of maintenance-related work will all create a huge business opportunity. For instance, the Railways order for maintenance equipment is alone estimated to cost Rs 120 billion.

"There is a huge market and we are planning an investment of Rs 8.5 trillion on infrastructure development at the Indian Railways over the next five years. This would need a lot of steel. At least 20 million tonnes (MT) of new rakes will be required annually. This would also need some high-grade steel. About 7 MT of steel will be required for building wagons, coaches and other infrastructure," informed Khandelwal.

According to some estimates, the public sector transporter directly or indirectly consumes up to 15 per cent of the total steel produced in the country. While sounding caution in the backdrop of the ongoing US-China war and Coronavirus pandemic, N Sainathan, Chief Sales Manager (North India), Tata Steel, called for teamwork within the industry.

"For this industry to grow every participant in the value chain needs to elevate their role to become more efficient and value accretive. I would like to take the example of the automobile industry, which 20 years ago used to import 30-40 per cent of its steel because the domestic industry was unable to provide the desired quality or service. But today that has reduced to less than 5 per cent. This has been made possible by the partnership between the steel companies and automakers," he opined.

Need to standardise
The experts also agreed that despite overtaking Japan to become the world’s number two steelmaker, India’s steel sector needed to address a multitude of challenges. One of the priority areas for the country was to significantly encourage domestic steel consumption. The share of steel-based construction in India is around 10 per cent while in the developed Western economies it hovers at nearly 80 per cent.

The forum also raised the demand for the rollout of a proper code for steel-intensive buildings. In this regard, speakers said that China’s much-acclaimed feat of constructing a 1,000-bed hospital for coronavirus patients in a matter of days was made possible only due to the successful implementation of such a framework there.

V Suresh, Chief General Manager & Regional Manager (Northern Region), Steel Authority of India (SAIL), said that the sector played a critical role in not only GDP growth but also job creation. "The steel industry is an important constituent in the growth and development of an economy. The performance of the steel industry has a major bearing on industry segments such as infrastructure, construction, peripherals, etc., with the multiplier effect of 1.4 times on the GDP. But the greater impact comes from employment generation, where the multiplier effect is around 6.8," he emphasised.

He felt that the low percentage use of steel in housing and other construction was attributable to the inability to both provide as well as accurately gauge the quantity and quality of steel required in such construction. He sought for immediate revision of BIS 800 code regarding the use of steel in construction to also include high-grade steels.

"The other issue is about the design part. There is somehow a mismatch between what we can produce, what we intend to produce and what is required by the industry. Although architects and designers appreciate that steel-intensive construction is the way forward, there is reluctance due to various reasons such as availability and acceptance by the end-user. So, there is a need for us to have a forum and, perhaps, Make in Steel can help us in this regard to some extent," added Suresh.

Hervinder Singh, President & Business Unit Head Long Products, Jindal Steel & Power, made a forceful pitch for a cleaner steel industry through the use of cleaner and greener technologies that helped in curbing pollution and prevent wastage of resources.

"The focus should be on making quality steel of higher strength through a cost-effective production process," he opined.

Welcoming the delegates to the conference, Pratap Padode, President and Founder, First Construction Council (FCC), said, "The year has begun on a tumultuous note. But I think through challenges also emerge top stories. When some of the leading multinationals and foreign companies come here for the first time, they don’t look at the chaos. They look at the opportunities. Because if everything were hunky-dory, why would there be a need for new infrastructure or new buildings?" FCC, which had organised the event, is an infrastructure think tank dedicated to serving the causes and needs of the Indian construction sector. It was established in 2003.

Two panel discussions, "Smart Steel for Smart Urbanisation: New Products and Dimensions in Steel"and "Growing Use of Stainless Steel", were also organised during the day-long conference. Panelists included Arun Sahai, COO, Ahluwalia Contracts; Rajiv Nehru, Director Product Development & Training, RICS South Asia; Mili Majumdar, Managing Director, GBCI India; S Krishnakumar, CEO Building Solutions, Everest Industries; Sahil Agarwal, Senior Technologist, Tata Steel; Debashis Dutta, Structural Engineer, Institute for Steel Development & Growth; and NK Vijayvargia, Consultant, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association.

The report "TMT ReBar: A Key Pillar in Indian Infrastructure" was also released at 2020 Make in Steel conference. This one-of-its-kind analysis on reinforcement bars-also called thermo-mechanically treated (TMT) bars-has come to be regarded as an important study in its segment.

– MANISH PANT

Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

3 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.