INDUSTRY VISIT

REPORT
(SHAH ALLOYS)
Founded in the year 1990, Shah Alloys, an ISO 9001:2008 accredited
company, has come a long way to become one of the most versatile steel
producer in India. It manufactures a complete range of Stainless Steel, Alloy &
Special steel, Carbon/ Mild Steel and Armour Steel in Flat and Long products.

The company was incorporated as Private Limited Company, under the

name Shah Alloys Pvt. Ltd. on 23rd November 1990, in State of
Gujarat. The name was subsequently changed to Shah Alloys Ltd., when
it was converted into a Public Limited Company on 23-4-1992.

The company was incorporated with the main object of manufacturing of

Alloy Steel Casting, Carbon and Manganese Steel Castings, Ingots and
Billets. The Company's plant is situated at village Santej,
Tal-Kalol, Dist.Mehsana, Gujrat.

Now the company proposes to increase its present capacity of 15000 MT

PA to 45000 MT PA by installing latest technological Plant and
machineries.

Under the present Licensing Policy of the Government of India, the

company does not require any license. It has to get only a Reference
Number from the Ministry of Industry in acknowledgement of Memorandum
of Information submitted by the company. Accordingly, registration
No.166(91) dt.21st Feb. 1991 has been issued by the Department of
Industrial Development for installation of plant for manufacturing of
Steel Castings, Alloy Steel casting and cast iron castings, excluding
manhole covers, flangers, Pipes, ingots, billets, slabs, blooms and
blanks upto 80000 MT p.a.

PRODUCTS
MANUFACTURED
Wide spectrum of product basket consists of Hot rolled coils, sheets & plates
, Cold rolled coils & sheets , Hot rolled round bars , Bright round bars ,
Hot rolled flat bars , Angles, beams etc

Stainless Steel

Alloy and Special Steels

 Mild Steel / Carbon Steel

Armour Steel

MANUFACTURING
FACILITIES

Steel Melting Shop

• Electric Arc Furnace
• Induction Melting Furnaces
• AOD Converters
• Fume Exhaust Systems
• Laddle Refining Furnace
• CaSi Cored Wire Treatment Station
• Continuous billet-bloom caster
• Hot billet shearing machine
• Continuous slab caster
• Slab/Billet conditioning and grinding facility
• Slab/Billet slow cooling pits

Hot Rolling Mill – For Hot Rolled Coils/ Sheets/ Plates

• Slab Reheating Furnace
• Descaling System
• Reversible Plate Mill
• Edger
• Steckle mill for hot rolled coils
• Laminar Cooling system
• Online Cut to Length Machine

Hot Rolling Mill – For Long Products

• 14” Cross Country mill for Rounds, Flats and Structural
• 16” Cross Country mill for Rounds, Flats and Structural
• 20” Cross Country mill for Rounds, Flats and Structural

Heat Treatment and Pickling

• Online Annealing furnace (with quenching facility)
• Batch type Annealing furnace (with quenching facility)
• Annealing and Pickling lines for Hot Rolled Coils
• Annealing and Pickling lines for Cold Rolled Coils
• Batch type pickling
• Shot Blasting

Cold Rolling Complex

• Cold Rolling Mills
• Skin Pass Mills
• Slitting Lines
Bright Bars
• Combined Drawing Machines
• Peeling machines for size range 18 mm to 140 mm
• Grinders
• Polishing / Straightening machines

GAS Plant
Captive Power Plant

The best thing we saw over there was the live process of melting iron and removal os slug and
making of sheets from it

Quality Policy
At Shah Alloys, we are committed to achieve highest quality standards through state-of-art
technology and equipment. Our various Laboratories are equipped with testing equipment sourced
from reputed manufacturers which is complimented by excellent team of qualified professionals.
Our overall quality objective is to continually improve at all disciplines, satisfy and exceed our
customers’ expectations.

Testing Facilities
• Emission Spectrometer (Shimadzu)
• IFCO Gas Analyzer -1 No
• Universal Testing Machine UTM-60
• Hardness Tester – Vickers/ Rockwell & Brinell
• Impact Tester
• Optical (Radiation) Pyrometer
• Ultrasonic Flaw Detector
• Ultrasonic Thickness Gauge
• Full Fledged Chemical Laboratory
• Temperature Measuring Equipments.

Quality Assurance and Approvals

• Approved by BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards)
• Approved by Research Designs and Standards Organization of Indian Railways
• Approved by Indian Boiler Regulation (Department of Boilers) for ASTM A387 / A516 grades.
• Third party inspection by BV, TUV, SGS, RITES, etc.

PRODUCTION
Ahmedabad-based Shah Alloys (SAL), the second largest producer of
stainless steel in the country after the Jindal group, plans to invest
around Rs 1000 crore to set up a ferro alloys plant at Gandhidham.
When complete, the unit will have a capacity of one lakh tonne. SAL
plans a Rs 50 crore initial public offering (IPO) in six months to fund the
expansion. The company will also raise debt to fund the new plant.
SAL has recently set up a wholly owned subsidiary SAL Steel Ltd to
handle the ferro alloys business. “This would be the first plant of its
kind in Gujarat. Apart from meeting its own demand for ferro-alloys (a
major raw material in the production of stainless steel), the plant will
also cater to the casting industry in the state,” said Rajendra Shah,
chairman and managing director, SAL. The investment in the plant
would be in four phases. The first phase will involve an investment of
Rs 250 crore and is expected to be complete by the end of the current
calendar year. Thereafter, the company will invest Rs 250 crore each in
the next three years. “The need for setting up a plant arose because
ferro-alloys is now being brought from other parts of the country,
adding to the costs of production,” said Shah. “The turnover from the
new unit is expected to be Rs 200 crore at the end of its first year of
operations. It is expected to log a net profit of Rs 50 crore. The
company is likely to grow at the rate of 30 per cent after that,” said
Shah. SAL recorded a turnover of Rs 786 crore in the financial year
2002-2003. It has already surpassed that figure in the first nine months
of the current financial year. The company expects to clock a turnover
in excess of Rs 1000 crore by the end of the current financial year. “We
are expecting to double the turnover to around Rs 2000 crore in the
next five years,” said Shah. Over 50 per cent of the company’s
turnover comes from exports. SAL exports mainly to China, Italy and
Germany. “This year we exported around Rs 500 crore and target to
export over 80 per cent of the turnover in the next financial year,” said
Shah. The company faces competition at the international level from
countries like Japan and Korea in terms of pricing but has an edge over
them in terms of quality and with the new plant, the raw material
would be available at cheaper rates, reducing the cost production and
making the company globally competitive.

RAW MATERIALS FOR

PRODUCTION

The ores used in making iron and steel are iron oxides, which are compounds of iron and oxygen.
The major iron oxide ores are hematite, which is the most plentiful, limonite, also called brown
ore, taconite, and magnetite, a black ore. Magnetite is named for its magnetic property and has the
highest iron content. Taconite, named for the Taconic Mountains in the northeastern United States,
is a low-grade, but important ore, which contains both magnetite and hematite.

Ironmaking furnaces require at least a 50% iron content ore for efficient operation. Also, the cost
of shipping iron ores from the mine to the smelter can be greatly reduced if the unwanted rock and
other impurities can be removed prior to shipment. This requires that the ores undergo several
processes called "beneficiation." These processes include crushing, screening, tumbling, floatation,
and magnetic separation. The refined ore is enriched to over 60% iron by these processes and is
often formed into pellets before shipping. Taconite ore powder, after beneficiation, is mixed with
coal dust and a binder and rolled into small balls in a drum pelletizer where it is then baked to
hardness. About two tons of unwanted material is removed for each ton of taconite pellets shipped.

The three raw materials used in making pig iron (which is the raw material needed to make steel)
are the processed iron ore, coke (residue left after heating coal in the absence of air, generally
containing up to 90% carbon) and limestone (CaCO3) or burnt lime (CaO), which are added to the
blast furnace at intervals, making the process continuous. The limestone or burnt lime is used as a
fluxing material that forms a slag on top of the liquid metal. This has an oxidizing effect on the
liquid metal underneath which helps to remove impurities. Approximately two tons of ore, one ton
of coke, and a half ton of limestone are required to produce one ton of iron.

There are several basic elements which can be found in all commercial steels. Carbon is a very
important element in steel since it allows the steel to be hardened by heat treatment. Only a small
amount of carbon is needed to produce steel: up to 0.25% for low carbon steel, 0.25-0.50% for
medium carbon steel, and 0.50-1.25% for high carbon steel. Steel can contain up to 2% carbon, but
over that amount it is considered to be cast iron, in which the excess carbon forms graphite. The
metal manganese is used in small amounts (0.03-1.0%) to remove unwanted oxygen and to control
sulfur. Sulfur is difficult to remove from steel and the form it takes in steel (iron sulfide, FeS)
allows the steel to become brittle, or hot-short, when forged or rolled at elevated temperatures.
Sulfur content in commercial steels is usually kept below 0.05%. A small quantity of phosphorus
(usually below 0.04%) is present, which tends to dissolve in the iron, slightly increasing the
strength and hardness. Phosphorus in larger quantities reduces the ductility or formability of steel
and can cause the material to crack when cold worked in a rolling mill, making it cold-short.
Silicon is another element present in steel, usually between 0.5-0.3%. The silicon dissolves in the
iron and increases the strength and toughness of the steel without greatly reducing ductility. The
silicon also deoxidizes the molten steel through the formation of silicon dioxide (SiO2), which
makes for stronger, less porous castings. Another element that plays an important part in the
processing of steel is oxygen. Some large steel mills have installed their own oxygen plants, which
are located near basic oxygen furnaces. Oxygen injected into the mix or furnace "charge" improves
and speeds up steel production.

Lastly we also came to know many things when we talked with the Finance & HR manager of the
company.