How much coal and power do Mandi Gobindgarh's re-rolling mills use, and what does a typical mill emit?
A typical Mandi Gobindgarh rolling mill uses about 345 toe a year, roughly 440 t of coal and 680,000 kWh. That comes to about 1,240 t CO2 a year (estimate), nearly two-thirds of it from coal in the reheating furnace. Together the town's mills burnt 70,909 t of coal and 110 million kWh in 2014-15.
The town's energy bill, in two lines
Steel Town has about 404 MSME units, of which about 160 rolling mills were running when TERI profiled the cluster. Their pusher-type reheating furnaces fire pulverised coal brought from Assam, and the rolling stands run on grid power from PSPCL.
The profile counts 70,909 t of coal (45,765 toe) and 110 million kWh (9,453 toe) a year, 55,218 toe in all, not counting the induction furnaces that make the billets. Coal is about 83% of a typical mill's energy, and the reheating furnace takes about 80% of everything a mill burns.
What your bills are saying in tonnes of CO2
The profile's average is 1.48 MJ per kg of product, 0.035 toe per tonne. At that rate a 345 toe mill rolls close to 9,900 t a year. Coal makes up about 780 t of its CO2 and power about 460 t, so roughly 0.13 t CO2 per tonne rolled, of which about 0.08 t is the furnace.
Check this before you quote a number
The profile's own totals imply about 6,450 kcal per kg for the coal mills buy, well above typical Indian coal. Senseible's default factor for Indian coal (1.76 kg CO2 per kg) is set for average grades, so a richer coal carries more carbon per tonne. Ask your coal supplier for the lab report with calorific value and carbon content, and use it in place of the default once you have it.
Who will ask for it
- An EU importer, if your rounds, squares or bars are exported: rolled bars and sections are CBAM goods, and the importer needs your furnace figure plus the billet supplier's figure, or pays on default values.
- Your bank, when a furnace or fuel-switch loan comes up and the lender wants a before and after.
- Bigger customers who report their supply chain and want a per-tonne figure from each mill.
The move that pays back here
- Redesign the reheating furnace: the profile puts the saving at 15 to 20%, because zone temperatures are not monitored and insulation is poor.
- Fix the recuperator: as a thumb rule, every 20 °C more preheat on combustion air saves about 1% of fuel. Most local recuperators are under-designed.
- Gas in the furnace: the profile records GAIL's offer to supply gas from its Dadri to Nangal line. If gas reaches your gate, it replaces coal, your biggest CO2 line, with a fuel that carries less carbon for the same heat.
Records to keep from today
- Coal purchase invoices and weighbridge slips, with the supplier's lab report for each lot.
- Monthly PSPCL bills showing kWh.
- Tonnes of billets charged and tonnes of finished product, month by month, from the same register.
- Billet supplier names and any emissions figure they give you.
Estimate: a typical 345 toe mill for one year
- Coal share: 345 toe x 83% = 286.4 toe; at the cluster ratio of 70,909 t per 45,765 toe = 443.7 t of coal
- Coal CO2: 443.7 t x 1.76 = 780.9 t CO2
- Power share: 345 toe x 17% = 58.7 toe; at 110 million kWh per 9,453 toe = 682,500 kWh
- Power CO2: 682,500 kWh x 0.675 = 460.7 t CO2
- Total: 780.9 + 460.7 = 1,241.6 t CO2 a year
- Output at 0.035 toe per tonne: 345 / 0.035 = 9,857 t, so about 0.126 t CO2 per tonne, 0.079 t of it from coal
Built from the cluster averages with Senseible's Indian coal factor and the FY 2025-26 grid factor. With a richer coal at the imported-coal factor of 2.44, the coal line alone would be about 1,083 t. Your own invoices and production register replace all of these.
What Senseible does here
Upload a few months of coal invoices and PSPCL bills and Senseible turns them into a dated Scope 1 and 2 figure with the factor and source on every line; add your tonnes rolled and it gives the per-tonne number a buyer or bank will ask for.
- Get your carbon number
- Mandi Gobindgarh bars: the CBAM figure
- Green loan for a steel MSME
- Sihor re-rolling mill CO2 per tonne
Sources: TERI, Cluster Profile Report: Mandi Gobindgarh steel rerolling mills (2015, SAMEEEKSHA), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0, Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM), consolidated, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy
Last reviewed 2026-10-29.