Odisha emerges as India's steel hub, contributing 25% of national production

Speaking at Steel Markets Conference organized by mjunction at Bhubaneswar, Varma said, "Odisha accounts for 25% of the India’s total steel production and is fast emerging as the 'steel Hub' of India."

The theme of the two-day event was “Connecting the Dots for a Sustainable Future,” with special focus on Iron ore, Pellets, Scrap and DRI sectors.

Not only finished steel, Odisha is also taking major strides in iron ore supplies.

Vivek Nishant Nath, GM (Sales and Marketing), Odisha Mining Corp said, “Odisha has emerged as the biggest iron ore dispatching company in the country surpassing NMDC Ltd as of now, supplying 23 million tons till September of the current financial year.”

For full year FY25, OMC is planning to dispatch more than 40 million tons, he added.

“Tata Steel has recently commissioned India's largest blast furnace at its Kalinganagar facility in Odisha”, Rajiv Kumar, VP, Operations, Tata Steel Kalinganagar, said, adding that the facility is extensively implementing robotics, data and vision analytics to improve safety and productivity.

According to Manish Singla, Practice Leader, Energy and Commodities, Consulting, CRISIL, “Of the 120 million tons of steel capacity coming up in the country, majority is coming up in Odisha. Also, 66% of this capacity is through the Blast Furnace route”, he said.

Significant capacity addition is happening after years of consumption growth outpacing steel production growth, and this has led to capacity utilization levels going up, he said.

The conference concluded on Tuesday with some key sessions on logistics infrastructure and sourcing strategies.