Porto Novo Iron Works known subsequently as the Indian Steel and Iron company, Porto Novo Iron Company or Porto Novo Steel and Iron Company was a historic iron and steel plant in southern India founded in 1830 by Josiah Marshall Heath and later taken over by the East India Company. The factory was initially located at Porto Novo, now known as Parangipettai, in South Arcot District of Tamil Nadu but was later moved due to fuel shortage to Beypore on the west coast of India.[3] Iron and steel from the plant was used to construct the railway stations at Madras central and Egmore stations and was also exported to Sheffield.[4] The company was dissolved in 1874.
It was the oldest and first Iron & Steel plant in India[5][6] and one of Asia's largest iron manufacturing plants in 1880s.[4] The Portonovo steel was supplied to England and was used to construct the Menai and Britannia bridges.[7] The first pier of the Chennai Port was constructed in 1861 with Porto Novo iron.[8] The porto novo supplied the tracks for the India's first railroad "The Red Hill Railroad" laid in 1836.[9][6][10] In 1850s, 500 tons of wrought iron was supplied by the Porto Novo iron works at rupees 60 a
ton for the Construction of railway lines to Raneegunge in West Bengal.[11][12][13] 2,000 worth 400 ploughs were sold to the Bombay Presidency in 1837[14][15] and one hundred tons of iron requested by Secretary in 1846.[16]
^Sharada Srinivasan, Srinivasa Ranganathan (November 2004). India's Legendary wootz Steel(PDF). National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Pg. no. 39.