Abstract
THE Journal of Indian Industries and Labour for A November last (vol. 1, part 4) contains, amongst other interesting matter, a summary of the present position of iron production in India which deserves the serious attention of all engaged in iron and steel industries. The large and rapidly developing coalfields, the enormous deposits of high-grade, hæmatite iron ore, ample supplies of limestone and of refractory materials, abundant and low-priced labour, all combine to place India in the position of a very serious potential competitor in the world's markets. Two firms are producing iron to-day—the Bengal Iron Co., with works at Kulti, on the Barakar River, comprising five blast furnaces, each with an output of 450 tons of pig-iron per twenty-four hours, and the Tata Iron and Steel Works at Jamshedpur, in Singbhum, with three blast furnaces having a capacity of 900 tons of pig-iron per diem; the latter firm also possesses a steel works with seven furnaces capable of producing 17,500 tons of ingots per month, whilst extensions to both the blast-furnace plant and the steel works are in course of erection and a plate-mill has just been completed. A number of new works are being projected; the Indian Iron and Steel Co. is building blast furnaces for an output of 600 tons of pig-iron per diem at Hirapur, the Eastern Iron Co. is building blast furnaces close to the Jharia coalfield, whilst the United Steel Corporation of Asia is to establish works producing both iron and steel at Manoharpur; this last works intends to use coal from the new Karanpura coalfield. The Kirtyanand Iron and Steel Works, near Sitarampur, does not at present propose to make pig-iron, but is confining itself to the production of iron and steel castings. In connection with the Tata works a group of subsidiary concerns have been, and are being, formed at Jamshedpur to work up the iron and steel produced by these works; they comprise the Calcutta Monifieth Works (for producing machinery for jute manufacture), Enamelled Ironware, Ltd., the Tinplate Co. of India Cwhich will supply the Burma Oil Co. and other Indian oil companies), the Agricultural Implements Co., the Indian Steel Wire Products, Ltd., the Enfield Co., and the Hume Pipe and Construction Co.
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Iron Production in India. Nature 109, 191 (1922). https://doi.org/10.1038/109191b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/109191b0