THERMEX Quenched & Tempered Rebars

SECTION 1: Steel 2020
Basic Global Norms
Comparison: India & China
THE YEARS AHEAD: 2005 - 2020
SECTION 2: Relevance of Thermex Rebars
Global Trends in Rebars
Relevance of THERMEX Quenching & Tempering Technology
H&K India Thermex References and Photos of Installations

India: Steel-2020 & Relevance of Thermex Technology (First Published in Iron & Steel Review, March 2004)

rajmarkan02.jpg
By Raj K. Markan, CMD, H&K India

SECTION 1: STEEL - 2020

 

Common world opinion is that India is on the threshold of becoming a developed country and that it will be a global power by 2020 if it continues on the development path of the past few years. It is also an established fact that steel plays an important part in a nation’s development and per capita steel consumption is considered a good indicator of industrial development. What, then, is the ground reality in India?

 

First, the current per capita steel consumption in India, at a dismal 29 kg, is only at the level of an under-developed country, let alone a developing one. Generally, depending on land area and population, developing countries have 50 to 250 kg per capita consumption. Second, the current proportion of flat to long product consumption in India, at about 55% to 45% is alarmingly tilted towards the flat products and is a consumption pattern normally found in near developed countries. These two facts are significant and indicate that we have very small pockets of high development alongside major areas in the country in a state of negligible development. Thus, large amount of work remains to be done in development of the country as a whole.

 

The government is apparently seized of this anomaly and has over the past few years visibly begun to set right matters. The Joint Plant Committee has estimated steel consumption at a conservative 100 million tonnes (mT) in 2018. This may not be enough for India to keep its appointment of being considered as a developed nation by 2020. While we may have by that time many more areas of high development as per world standards, the country as a whole would still have large areas inadequately developed. For visible development in all parts of the nation in the years up to 2020, India will need to -

 

  1. Raise its per capita consumption to at least 100 kg or about 140mT steel per year, and
  2. Correct its flat to long product ratio to around 45% flat and 55% long.

 

Besides steel consumption, the other main change will be regarding the type of steel reinforcement bars (rebars) used in the country. The pattern for over three decades has been total reliance on cold twisted deformed (CTD) rebars – even though most developed countries in the world had stopped its usage within a few years of its introduction and patent. It is foreseen that finally the same is about to happen in India with the introduction of "Quenched & Tempered" (Q&T) rebars in recent years. CTD rebars are now in the last stages in the country and it is only a matter of time before India too starts to go the global way. The stagnancy seen in the country and the ‘closed market’ conditions that prevailed during the 5 decades since Independence has been a period of ‘losses’ to the nation and a ‘gain’ for CTD. Unfortunately, even the steel majors that took to manufacture world class Q&T rebars in the 1980s and 1990s could not propagate amongst the civil engineers, knowledge about their superior product for a very long time. (To complicate matters, they incorrectly labelled their Q&T bars as "TMT" bars - and this has given rise to various other problems.)

 

One must necessarily look at what is happening globally before attempting a forecast for India-2020.


 

Thermex Rebars News

Thermex Q&T Technology

Email:handk.india@gmail.com

Lycos MP3 Search

Artist or Song Name:

Typical Q & T Pics:

thermex-bar-structure.jpg
X-section of Q&T rebar

thermex-installation.jpg
Typical Q & T Line for rebars

thermex-25mm.jpg
Typical steam at exit of quenching

THERMEX is a registered trademark of H&K Rolling Mill Engineers Pvt. Ltd. in India and is owned by HSE, Germany in other Countries