Steel and Metals

Industry Context

In steel, maintenance events are earnings events.

Tata Steel's relining of the G blast furnace at Jamshedpur pulled India crude steel output down about three percent quarter on quarter in Q4 FY25, and its Netherlands Blast Furnace 6 reline drove the region to an EBITDA loss on higher maintenance, spares, and capex, within a group capex of Rs 15,671 crore in FY25. Campaign-life decisions of that scale rest on condition data: refractory state, shell integrity, and the metallurgical health of hot equipment. TCR supplies that data through in-situ metallography on live plant, failure analysis of rolls, bearings, and furnace components, refractory and materials testing, and RLA of reheating furnaces and process equipment across the integrated and secondary steel sector.

The Indian steel sector is on a stated path from approximately 145 MTPA installed crude-steel capacity (FY24) to 300 MTPA by 2030 to 2035 under the National Steel Policy. The brownfield and greenfield capex pipeline runs across Tata Steel (Kalinganagar Phase II, Meramandali), JSW Steel (Vijayanagar Phase II, Dolvi expansion), SAIL (Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela, Durgapur, IISCO Burnpur modernisation), ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (Hazira expansion to 15 MTPA), and the Vedanta ESL Bokaro programme.

Three integrity-load drivers shape the workload: aging blast-furnace and coke-oven asset bases (some now beyond 30 years operating life); the Direct Reduction Plant (DRP) sponge-iron route which uses reformer-tube inspection methodology (ARTiS cross-vertical with Fertilisers); and the captive-power and waste-heat boiler footprint at integrated steel plants which uses the boiler RLA practice.

The sector also brings the largest classical wet-chemistry buyer pool in India: every integrated producer runs a chemical certification programme on incoming raw materials (iron ore, coke, limestone, dolomite, alloying additions) and outgoing finished product (HR coil, CR coil, plate, structural sections, special bar, wire rod). TCR's wet-chemistry capacity is a structural fit.

Green-steel pathways (hydrogen-based DRP, cross-vertical with Fertilisers and the API 941 HTHA scope) bring API 941 discipline into shaft-furnace and reformer-tube qualification. Carbon capture on integrated steel BOF flue gas brings amine-system corrosion qualification (cross-vertical with Refining and Fertilisers). Electric-arc-furnace (scrap-route) capacity expansion brings refractory-and-shell qualification scope. Captive-renewable integration (solar PV at integrated plant sites) brings structural-steel testing for module-mounting structures. Hydrogen blending in coke-oven gas brings cross-pillar qualification for HTHA-prone equipment.

The Tata Steel and JSW Steel hydrogen-DRP demonstration projects, the SAIL Bhilai modernisation programme, and the ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Hazira expansion to 15 MTPA all point to a multi-decade integrity-and-life-extension workload on the existing fleet alongside green-steel capex.

Damage Mechanisms We Investigate

Service Applications Across the TCR Continuum

A steel plant is simultaneously a producer and a heavy consumer of integrity services. On the production side, the plant certifies its own product, and TCR's role is independent verification: mechanical, chemical, and metallurgical testing of primary steels to ASTM, EN, JIS, and IS specifications.

On the asset side, the plant carries some of the harshest equipment duty in industry: blast furnace shells and stoves, basic oxygen furnace and electric arc furnace hoods, ladles and tundish structures, caster segments, reheating furnace tubes in creep service, rolling mill rolls and gearboxes, and direct reduced iron reformers running the same creep and carburisation mechanisms as fertiliser reformers. Shutdown windows are set by campaign life and relines; procurement risk sits in rolls, refractories, castings, and spares. TCR Engineering and TCR Advanced service all five stages of the five-stage Trusted Relationship Model (see Why TCR) for integrated, secondary, and direct reduction producers.

Stage One, Sourcing and Procurement: TCR qualifies rolls, castings, forgings, refractory anchor systems, and structural steel through mechanical, chemical, and metallurgical testing, runs vendor factory audits and original equipment manufacturer qualification for mill equipment, and verifies incoming ferroalloys, scrap-mix inputs, and consumables through the chemical analysis laboratory, with sample picking and loading supervision on high-value procurement.

Stage Two, Construction and Commissioning: During expansion projects, mill revamps, and furnace rebuilds, TCR provides baseline non-destructive testing on structural steel and pressure systems, welder certification and procedure qualification per ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX and AWS D1.1, radiography and ultrasonic testing of critical welds, post-weld heat treatment, and positive material identification, so the rebuilt asset starts its campaign with a documented baseline.

Stage Three, In-Service: In operation, TCR deploys thermography of furnace shells, ladles, and torpedo cars for refractory hotspot detection, thickness monitoring of gas cleaning plant and ducting, remote visual inspection of stacks and confined spaces, and oxide scale and corrosion mapping on boiler and power block equipment in captive plants, with risk-based inspection planning per API RP 580 principles adapted to metallurgical plant equipment.

Stage Four, Shutdown and Turnaround: During relines, capital shutdowns, and mill stops, TCR inspects blast furnace shell welds, hood and lance systems, crane girders and structural members, reheating furnace tubes with in-situ metallographic replication, direct reduced iron reformer tubes with ARTiS (as deployed at Emirates Steel Industries on DRP1 and DRP2), and captive power boiler pressure parts, supported by turnaround inspection manpower.

Stage Five, Continuum: The engineering stage delivers failure analysis of rolls, gears, shafts, and furnace components, remaining life assessment of reheating furnaces, reformers, and captive boilers, fitness for service per API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 on pressure systems, structural stability assessment of ageing mill buildings and crane structures, and contract research including hydrogen-based direct reduced iron materials questions that carry the plant into low-carbon steelmaking.

Marquee Projects

ARTiS inspects sponge-iron and direct-reduction reformer tubes from Bhilai to Abu Dhabi, and Welspun Maxsteel at Alibaug is among the in-situ metallography clients.