Tata Consulting Engineers Limited (TCE) was retained to provide engineering consultancy services by a multinational steel manufacturing company of repute to study the feasibility and submit a report pertaining to the relocation of existing steel plant facilities within the plant boundary by utilizing the similar process flow. The requirement cropped up because, a local regulating authority planned to construct a new road within the leased land of the plant. The proposed road was fouling the downstream and ancillary facilities of the plant in operation, including major substations/ ECRs and utility system. The customer also intended to consolidate the present layout of the plant by optimising the location of some of the process plant facilities and by discarding some of the non-process facilities that have become obsolete.

The steel plant was the only steel mill with integrated upstream and downstream facilities in that country. The steel mill produced a range of products such as re-bars, wire rods, welded wire mesh, pre-fabricated cages, bore piles etc. used for construction projects.

The nature of this job required high end experts of various processes of steel plant design and operation. An in-house task force comprising steel plant experts and senior engineers from multiple engineering disciplines was formed to study the feasibility of relocation of mill by reducing the plant foot print. Following extensive discussions with the customer and the local governing body, it was decided that TCE will carry out the feasibility study considering the following alternatives:

Consolidation and relocation study highlighting the Impact, disruption of the production facilities and cost (CAPEX & OPEX) of relocation if the location/ alignment of the road is considered as proposed by the local regulating authority

Consolidation and relocation study highlighting the best location for the road with minimum disruption and relocation requirement, complying with the process flow including the cost (CAPEX & OPEX) to be incurred with improved plot ratio.

Above alternatives were formulated based on TCE’s observation that disposition of production facilities/ equipment in multi tier concept is not feasible as it will not support the process flow, road and logistics infrastructures of the plant.

Evaluation of the above alternatives was carried out considering the following factors:

Material balance of the plant Impact/ disruption of the plant facilities Relocation of the plant facilities Requirement of additional land to accommodate plant facilities Technical evaluation of the alternatives Costs of relocation

The job was carried out based on the following input/ information:

Input data/ information furnished by the customer based on the questionnaires forwarded by TCE Plant visit by the TCE project team along with the customer representatives to collect plant data. assessment of physical location of various units of the downstream facilities Study of the plant layout and logistics Understanding the operational requirement of the existing plant Understanding the coordinates and requirement of road layout proposed by the governing body Review of material flow of the plant Discussion with various plant operating and maintenance personnel to understand the present problems TCE in-house data base Benchmarking information

TCE carried out in-depth study for each alternative to evaluate the following technical attributes:

Quantum of dismantling, relocation work and impact on production facilities and ancillary facilities Disruption in production Additional land requirement Plot ratio Roads and logistics impacting movement of materials within the plant, parking areas, storage areas of rebar & wire rods Impact on dismantling and relocation of electrical substations, Electrical Control Rooms Impact on dismantling and relocation of utility systems such as dry compressed air, oxygen line, fire fighting system and water system Implementation schedule

Cost estimate was carried out for each of the alternatives considering dismantling, relocation of equipment/ facilities, construction of new building, procurement of new equipment, loss of production due to shifting of equipment/facilities and idle manpower.

TCE submitted a detailed feasibility report considering technical and commercial aspects of both alternatives and made a clear recommendation which was well received by the customer.

TCE is capable of carrying out design and engineering of relocation projects relating to various process plants.