Engineering Due Diligence
Independent Technical Assessment for Steel Plant Investment
SteelOnTheNet provides independent technical evaluations of both existing steel plant and equipment, and proposed new facilities — including assignments undertaken in the role of Lender's Technical Advisor (LTA), providing independent engineering oversight on behalf of financiers and project lenders.
Our capabilities extend across the full steelmaking process chain — from raw material preparation through melting, casting, and rolling — covering flat, long, and tube products.
Our team includes experienced steel plant operators, some with 30+ years of hands-on operational experience across integrated mills, EAF mini-mills, and specialty steel producers worldwide. Full consultant profiles are available at our expert network page.
Lender's Technical Advisor (LTA) Role
Independent Technical Oversight for Project Lenders
When a bank or financier is providing debt to a steel plant investment — whether a new build, a major modernisation, or a capacity expansion — the lender needs independent technical assurance that is separate from the borrower's own advisors. This is the role of the Lender's Technical Advisor, sometimes called a Lender's Engineer or Independent Technical Expert (ITE).
Our team brings direct operational and commercial steel industry experience that gives lenders confidence that technical claims made by promoters and borrowers are grounded in commercial reality — not just engineering optimism. We understand how steel plant equipment actually performs, what realistic KPIs look like, and where project risks are typically underestimated.
🏦 Pre-Lending Due Diligence
- Review project feasibility, design, and specifications
- Assess contractor and equipment supplier competence
- Evaluate capex estimates for realism against comparable projects
- Review construction schedules and ramp-up assumptions
- Identify technical risks that could affect debt repayment
- Independent capacity and material flow verification
🏗️ Construction Monitoring
- Periodic site visits to verify construction progress
- Review and certify drawdown requests
- Confirm work claimed has been completed before funds released
- Monitor budget and schedule variances
- Flag technical problems, scope changes, contractor issues
- Report to lender on a defined periodic basis
✅ Completion & Operations
- Certify mechanical or practical completion
- Confirm plant performs to agreed specifications and KPIs
- Review performance test results
- Monitor operational ramp-up during initial loan period
- Provide ongoing technical monitoring as required
Technical Review for Steel Plant Modernisation
Steel plant modernisation programmes — whether driven by decarbonisation, capacity enhancement, or product mix upgrade — represent major capital commitments that carry significant technical and financial risk. A structured independent technical review provides the assurance that lenders, investors, and boards require before committing funds.
🔧 What Modernisation Technical Review Covers
In a modernisation context, our independent review encompasses:
- Justification for the modernisation programme and scope definition
- Assessment of furnace and steelmaking upgrade proposals
- Review of casting and rolling mill modernisation plans
- Assessment of auxiliary and utility upgrades
- Review of finishing line investments where applicable
- Contractor and vendor proposal assessment
- Capex benchmarking against our 1,345+ project database
- Construction and commissioning schedule review
- Production ramp-up assumptions and revenue impact
- Operating cost impact of the modernisation
For lenders, this provides the independent basis required to support drawdown certification and confirm that the modernisation programme will deliver the operational improvements on which the debt service model depends.
Our Technical Capabilities
Our technical review service covers the full spectrum of steelmaking processes. The starting point is always an equipment list — we review key plant items and ancillaries, including an assessment of operating parameters and KPIs. This is complemented by an assessment of capacity and material flow, drawing on our steel plant material flow methodology.
For a detailed technical reference on each equipment type — including operating parameters, typical capacities, and performance norms — see our Steel Plant Equipment Guide.
⚙️ Raw Material Preparation
- Sinter plants
- Coke batteries
- DRI and HBI facilities
- Pellet plants
- Scrap processing and handling
🔥 Melting & Steelmaking
- Blast furnace operations
- BOF steelmaking
- EAF steelmaking
- Induction furnaces
- Ladle furnaces and secondary metallurgy
- Vacuum degassing and VOD
🏗️ Casting & Rolling
- Continuous casting — slab, bloom, billet
- Hot rolling — flat and long products, including plate mill yield & provisioning
- Cold rolling and processing lines
- Tube and pipe mills — seamless and welded
- Finishing lines — galvanising (temper rolling & tension levelling, coating mass control, dross control, coil winding, strip centring), pickling
- Modern casting technology including MiDa
New Facility or Existing Plant
🏭 Existing Plant Assessment
For an existing facility, our technical review covers the full plant in a structured sequence. Discussions centre on facility performance, maintenance, breakdowns, bottlenecks, and modernisation plans. We aim to speak directly with plant managers and works engineers to understand technical issues at first hand.
A plant visit is strongly recommended for existing facility reviews. Our consultants have the operational background to assess what they see on site and ask the right questions.
Review areas include:
- Buildings and infrastructure
- Raw materials preparation and handling
- Steelmaking
- Casting
- Reheat furnaces
- Rolling mills
- Utilities and support equipment
- Ancillaries
- Health, safety, and environmental conditions
- Human resources and organisation
- Transport logistics — to and from port and main customers
🆕 New Facility Planning
For a proposed new facility, technical deliberations are driven by the market — a market appraisal is used to construct a market-driven plant loading model, ensuring that future plant capacity is aligned with market needs rather than with promoter optimism.
New facility technical work includes:
- Capacity balance — mill, casting, melt, and raw material requirements at full capacity
- Plant descriptions and mill specifications including KPIs and expected norms
- Productivity and energy efficiency calculations including energy balance
- Production ramp-up schedule for initial years of operation
- Logistics, layout, utility supply, and plant integration with existing assets
- Assessment of proposed suppliers and vendor offers
- Capital investment cost assessment — benchmarked against our database of 1,345+ actual project records
- Operating cost model — fixed and variable cost elements
- Regional scrap trade flows for EAF-based investments
🔍 The Plant Visit
Ideally, our technical review includes a structured plant visit. Our team members have worked inside steel plants for decades — they know what to look for, how to interpret what they see, and how to engage productively with plant personnel.
During a plant visit, discussions focus on:
- Facility performance — actual versus design capacity, utilisation rates, and throughput constraints
- Maintenance — maintenance philosophy, planned versus unplanned downtime, and critical spare parts management
- Bottlenecks — identification of process constraints limiting overall plant throughput. See our equipment guide for typical capacity norms by process stage
- Modernisation plans — capital investment priorities and technology upgrade requirements
Where relevant, we also discuss logistics — transport arrangements to and from port, and access to main customers. These can materially affect landed costs and competitive positioning.
Capital Investment Cost Benchmarking
A key element of technical review for new or upgraded facilities is the assessment of capital investment costs. We maintain a proprietary database of 1,345+ actual capital investment project records — compiled from public sources over many years of research — covering the full range of iron and steelmaking plant and equipment.
What Capex Benchmarking Provides
By benchmarking a proposed investment against comparable actual projects, we can:
- Identify whether a promoter's capex estimate is realistic or optimistic
- Assess cost per tonne of capacity against comparable projects — covering blast furnaces, EAF steelmaking, continuous casters, hot strip mills, and more
- Flag individual cost items that appear anomalous relative to market norms
- Provide an independent basis for bank due diligence on capital cost assumptions
Database coverage includes: raw material preparation, melting, casting, rolling, finishing, ancillary equipment, and greenfield integrated mill and mini-mill projects. Individual records are available for purchase. View the capex database →
Environmental Assessment
Environmental considerations form an integral part of any technical review — for both existing and new facilities. Our environmental appraisal covers two distinct areas:
🌿 Existing Plant Environmental Review
- Appraisal of historical environmental burdens and legacy issues
- Assessment of current environmental performance — groundwater, dust emissions, CO₂ and other air emissions, noise and vibration
- Environmental permit compliance review including IPPC requirements
- Environmental capital expenditure assessment
♻️ New Facility Environmental Appraisal
A review of the main environmental issues expected at the proposed facility, covering:
- Air emissions, waste water discharges, solid waste, noise, and vibration — see our guide to steel mill water treatment
- Probable severity assessment for each issue
- Remedial or corrective measures typically undertaken by steelmakers
- Requisite environmental controls and stewardship requirements
- Permits and the application of BAT
Our Process
How a Typical Technical Review Proceeds
Scope Agreement
We agree the scope — existing facility or new build, product type, level of detail required, and whether a plant visit is included. We confirm deliverables, timeline, and fee. For LTA assignments, we also agree the reporting framework and drawdown certification protocol with the lender.
Equipment List & Document Review
Client provides equipment list, plant specifications, and available performance data. We review key plant items, operating parameters, KPIs, and material flow. Our steel plant equipment reference guide provides the technical benchmark context for this review.
Plant Visit (if included)
Structured site visit with meetings with plant management and engineering staff. Assessment of facility condition, performance, and constraints. Discussion of bottlenecks, maintenance philosophy, and modernisation plans.
Capacity & Material Flow Analysis
Assessment of overall plant capacity balance — melt, cast, roll — and identification of constraining process steps. Material flow modelled against market-derived loading assumptions for new facilities.
Capex & Operating Cost Assessment
For new or upgraded facilities — capital investment costs benchmarked against our proprietary capex database. For LTA assignments, this provides the independent cost verification lenders require before committing funds. Operating cost model prepared covering all major cost elements.
Environmental Review
Environmental performance or compliance appraisal as required. This step can include an assessment of energy and resource efficiency. See our podcast on best available techniques.
Written Report Delivery
Delivery of the technical review report to the agreed scope and schedule. For LTA engagements, ongoing periodic reports are issued to the lender throughout the construction and ramp-up period. All client materials handled under our data security framework.
Deliverables
📄 Report Deliverables
A technical review is delivered as a written report of approximately 25 pages or more, structured to the agreed scope. The report typically includes the following sections:
- Assets under consideration — outline of the plant and equipment reviewed, covering process route, installed capacity, and operational status
- Key assumptions — explicit statement of the principal assumptions underpinning the review, including capex cost benchmarks and KPIs used as reference norms
- Base case material flow — outline of the principal material flow through the facility, from raw material inputs through to finished product outputs, with key yield and conversion assumptions stated
- Capacity assessment — melt, cast, roll balance and identification of constraining process steps
- Environmental and workforce considerations — as relevant to scope
- Red flag issues — identification of any significant technical, operational, or commercial risks identified during the review that were not previously flagged by the promoter or borrower. Red flag issues are reported promptly and clearly, with recommended actions
- Capex benchmarking conclusions — assessment of whether proposed capital costs are realistic relative to comparable projects in our database
- Conclusions and recommendations — a clear summary of findings and, where appropriate, recommended next steps
For LTA engagements, the deliverable also includes drawdown certification reports, periodic construction monitoring reports, and a completion certificate confirming that the facility performs to specification.
Related Services
A technical review is typically one element of a broader feasibility study or due diligence exercise. Our integrated advisory services cover the full investment appraisal process:
For a full integrated feasibility study — combining market, technical, and financial analysis — see our feasibility study service.
Discuss Your Technical Review Requirement
Our team of experienced steel plant operators and technical consultants is available to discuss your requirements — whether for a plant visit and technical audit, a new facility concept study, a lender's technical advisor appointment, capex benchmarking, or environmental compliance review.
We serve banks, governments, steel producers, and investors worldwide. Project-based fees. Conflict-free analysis.