What is the total energy use and CO2 of the Ballari iron and steel cluster outside the integrated plant?
Leaving out JSW's integrated plant, TERI's 2025 study counts 42 iron and steel plants in Ballari making 8.71 million t a year, using 1.84 Mtoe and emitting 8.34 million t CO2. Sponge iron is most of it: 27 plants and 5.64 million t CO2, about two thirds.
The 42 plants
- Sponge iron: 27 (23 stand-alone, 4 within composite plants), 2.616 million t.
- Pellets: 4, 4.54 million t. Induction furnace: 3. Re-rolling: 4. Ferro alloy: 2. One mini blast furnace and one BF-BOF plant.
- Most are designated consumers under BEE's PAT scheme, so they already report energy to BEE.
Coal is the story
Coal and coke, 3.34 million t a year, give 94% of the energy and 7.4 million t CO2, more than 88% of the total. Sponge iron kilns burn 2.61 million t of it. Electricity, 1,330 million kWh, is 6% of energy and about 11% of CO2.
Why a cluster average per tonne misleads
8.34 / 8.71 looks like 0.96 t CO2 a tonne, but more than half of the 8.71 million t is pellets that go on into the kilns, so tonnes are counted twice. Use the figure for your own process instead.
What the study suggests
- Sponge iron: waste heat power, kiln preheating from waste heat, pellets in place of lump ore, mullite kiln lining, drives on fans and pumps, and in time gas-based DRI.
- Induction furnaces: scrap bundling, continuous casting with direct rolling.
- Re-rolling: recuperators, coal gasifiers in place of pulverised coal, better furnace lining.
CO2 per tonne by process (from the study)
- Sponge iron: 5.64 million t / 2.616 million t = 2.16 t CO2 per tonne
- Ferro alloy: 0.60 / 0.137 = 4.4 t CO2 per tonne
- Mini blast furnace: 0.49 / 0.24 = 2.0 t CO2 per tonne
- Induction furnace: 0.21 / 0.30 = 0.70 t CO2 per tonne
- Re-rolling: 0.16 / 0.572 = 0.28 t CO2 per tonne
- Pellets: 0.64 / 4.54 = 0.14 t CO2 per tonne
Production and CO2 from TERI's 2025 Ballari study, which excludes JSW's integrated plant.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads coal invoices (1.76 t CO2 a tonne Indian, 2.44 imported) and power bills into monthly records; electricity stays in the record for buyers' footprints even though CBAM leaves it out for steel. It has no built-in coke factor.
Sources: TERI, In-depth study: Iron and steel industries in Ballari cluster (2025), Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM), consolidated text, CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector (grid factor 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh, FY 2025-26), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel emission factors)
Last reviewed 2026-10-31.