History
Essar Group began its first operation with the construction of an outer breakwater in Chennai port. The Company was incorporated in June 1976 under the name of Essar Construction Limited and was engaged primarily in core sector activities, including marine construction, pipeline laying, dredging and other port related activities. In 1984, the Company ventured further into other core sectors mainly the field of exploration and development, drilling onshore and offshore oil and gas wells for Indian Public Sector oil exploration companies. In view of this the Company's name was then changed to Essar Offshore and Exploration Limited in May 1987.
In August 1987, the Company's name was changed to Essar Gujarat Limited, to reflect its highly diversified business interest. In 1988, the Company made an initial public offer for its shares, which are now listed in Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange of India and two other Indian stock exchanges.
In the 1990s the group entered into steel making with its Hazira plant in Gujarat and a pellet plant in Visakhapatnam. During the same decade the Essar Group expanded its scope into other businesses gas exploration, oil refinery, construction and GSM telephony.
As part of its business strategy of focusing on the iron and steel sector, the Company hived off its unrelated business to a series of different companies, which remain in the Group. Offshore and energy operations were transferred to Essar Oil Limited in May 1992, Civil and mechanical construction business were transferred to Essar Projects Limited in March 1993.
With a vertical integration program in mind, construction of a world-class state-of-the-art technology Hot Rolled (HR) sheets and coil plant began in 1992. The plan commenced trial production in April 1995 and commercial production in April 1996.
To reflect its business strategy of focusing on steel making operations, the name of the Company was changed from Essar Gujarat Limited to Essar Steel Limited in December 1995. The Company operates the following facilities at Hazira, Gujarat state. 3.4 MMTPA gas based Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant; 2.4 MMTPA Hot Rolled Coils (HRC) plant
The plant has requisite infrastructure like captive jetty, assured power supply, captive lime and oxygen plants and quality raw material from HBI plant. The products conform to quality requirements of international rating agencies like TÜV Rheinland, Lloyds Register, American Petroleum Institute etc. This is the first steel plant in India to receive ISO 14001 certification for the best environment management.
Over the last few years the group has been expanding its businesses geographically as well.
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