Located in the north-western tip of Orissa, around 5kms from the city, Rourkela Steel Plant is one of the first and the largest steel plants of India. Set up in 1958, RSP owned by the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) was founded with Indo-German collaboration with an installed capacity of 1 million tones and later increased to 1.9 million tones. At present RSP has the capacity to produce 2 million tones of hot metal, 1.9 million tones of crude steel and 1.67 million tones of saleable steel.

In the mid-1990's, Rourkela Steel Plant was modernized with a number of new units with high-tech facilities. Some old units were also restored for carrying out significant enhancement in the quality of products, reducing cost and ensuring clean atmosphere. It is also the first steel plant of SAIL, which produces 100% of slabs through the lucrative and quality-centric constant casting route. RSP is the only plant of SAIL's which produce silicon steels for the power sector, tin plates for the packaging industry and high quality pipes for the oil and gas sector. It also produces numerous broad and classy products like a range of flat, tubular and coated products. All major units of the plant are certified to ISO: 9001 standards and several other units like ERW and SW Pipe Plants, Special Plate Plant, Silicon Steel Mill, Sintering Plant II, Hot Strip Mill etc. have been awarded ISO: 14001 certification for Environment Management.