Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has awarded Outotec for design and delivery of an iron ore sinter plant for its Bhilai Steel Plant in Chhattisgarh. Outotec is expected to implement the turnkey plant project in consortium with Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Outotec says that it normally does not disclose the contract value, but typically technology solutions with corresponding scope range from EUR 20 to 25 million.

The new sinter plant is part of SAIL’s program of expanding the annual capacity of the Bhilai Steel Plant to 7 million tonnes of crude steel. Outotec’s scope covers engineering, supply of proprietary and special equipment as well as technical services for a sinter plant with annual capacity of 3.7 million tonnes. Larsen & Toubro will cover supply of local components and site construction works. The new sinter plant is expected to become operational in 2012.

“With the new contract for a large sintering plant at Bhilai, which follows several earlier contracts for medium to large-sized sinter plants in India, Outotec confirms its position as the partner of choice for agglomeration projects of the Indian public and private steel industry,” says Pertti Korhonen, President and CEO of Outotec.