First re-rolling mill was established in the year 1928 at Kanpur long before Independence of India. Gradually, re-rolling mills came up in the limelight when concept of large scale steel plant was absent in the mind of the Government, but only large steel plants at that time was started to function at TATA, Jamshedpur in the year 1907.
Since 1928 till today 1800 re-rolling mills are functioning all over India. This is because of the fact that many of the re-rollers from West Pakistan reestablished their re-rolling mills in and around of Punjab within India. Re-rolling mills serve the purpose as Secondary Steel Sector and as a complement to the main steel lines.
In 1984, the first manufacturing re-rolling mill unit was established with all key functional infrastructural operations in Liluah, Howrah. Manufacturing only Mild Steel (MS) Rounds bars and high strength deformed steel reinforcement bars (MS TMT); these products are manufactured till date due to the ever-growing demand from the construction industry.
The growth in construction activity and infrastructure projects in India has buoyed the demand for steel industry. There is a demand for steel products such has Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT) Bars , Structural steel viz., angles, plates, channels, rounds etc.,
The steel re-rolling mill (SRRM) sector in India is one of the most important segments of the steel industry and is a key link in the supply chain of iron and steel production in the country. The sector covers long products mills with re-heating furnace and rolling mills and a few units have completed backward integration by installing induction furnaces to melt scrap and DRI cast by ingot or continuous casting.
Most of the units are running at low energy efficiency and poor productivity due to the continued use of backdated and incompetent technologies and processes. The Ministry of Steel Government of India, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) has launched a project call the ‘Removal of barriers to energy efficiency enhancement in the SRRM sector in India’. The aims of the projects are to increase the energy efficiency of the SRRM sector and thereby reduce associated emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG and related pollutants. This paper presents the level of penetration of energy efficient technologies into this sector and the benefits achieved based in a national survey carried out on 300 re-rolling mills.