SAIL's Bokaro Plant achieves milestone with maiden chequered plate rolling operation

New Delhi: Steel Authority of India's (SAIL) Bokaro Steel Plant on Tuesday announced the successful completion of its first chequered plate rolling operation.

It said the milestone underscores the plant's growing technical competence and operational readiness.

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"The Bokaro Steel team completed the rolling of 12 chequered plate coils, ranging from 1,250 mm to 1,500 mm in width and 5 mm to 6 mm in thickness," the company said in a statement.

The operation was executed entirely in-house, without external support, relying on meticulous planning, precise machine setup, and continuous monitoring by the plant's technical staff, it said.

"The achievement marks a major step toward expanding the plant's production portfolio. With an estimated national market size of 360,000 tonnes annually for chequered plates, the plant aims to capture a significant share by targeting a monthly output of 30,000 tonnes, over and above its regular HR coil orders," the company said.

It said the chequered plate production carries a financial advantage as well, offering an approximate net sales realisation (NSR) of Rs 1,500 per tonne more than HR coils.

To transition the trial into full-scale commercial production, several key upgrades are already underway and are expected to be completed by January 2026, it said.

These include procurement of special rolls to replace the current ones, upgrades to higher automation models to accommodate chequered plate rolling, and mandatory ISO certification for the new product line.

Historically, SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant had produced chequered plates, and currently within SAIL, only Bokaro Steel Plant has demonstrated both the technical feasibility and commercial potential of this product, the statement added.

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