Tata Steel Develops Hydrogen-Ready Steel Pipes in a Milestone for India’s Energy Sector

Tata Steel Limited today achieved a historic milestone in hydrogen transportation as it became the first steelmaker in India to develop steel pipes for this purpose. The pipes, processed at Tata Steel’s Khopoli plant in Maharashtra, have been produced with steel from Tata Steel’s Kalinganagar Mill in Odisha.

On January 29, 2025, Tata Steel released a statement claiming that every stage of the technology development design and production of hot-rolled steel to pipes production in-house. The achievement marks an increasingly important role that Tata Steel is playing in leading the critical infrastructure of energy, especially within the emerging hydrogen sector.

For the first time in India, Tata Steel produced hot-rolled steel in 2024 that was ready for hydrogen transport. Such a development is significant because its pipes are designed to accommodate 100% pure gaseous hydrogen at a high pressure of 100 bar. Hydrogen qualification tests were conducted on the pipes by RINA-CSM S.p.A in Italy, a leading testing agency on hydrogen, and has been certified as reliable and safe.

Tata Steel’s innovation falls in line with India’s ambitious National Hydrogen Mission, which seeks to produce at least 5 million metric tons of green hydrogen per year by 2030 with the potential to increase it to 10 million metric tons. Steel pipes will be an economically viable mass transportation solution, and orders are expected to start around 2026-27 as demand increases for transporting hydrogen products.

The research and development team has played a very important role in Tata Steel’s development of sustainable and innovative solutions for hydrogen storage and transportation, giving the company a vanguard position in the hydrogen economy. In the next five to seven years, the steel industry is likely to demand around 350,000 metric tons of hydrogen-compliant steel for pipeline production and will become a critical node during India’s energy transition.