Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (Visakhapatnam Steel Plant) is stepping up efforts to commission its new steel melt shop (SMS) built as a part of the expansion project and to produce 6.3 million tonnes of liquid steel.
According to A.P. Choudhary, tailor-made valves will be imported from Australia and the United Kingdom next month.
“We will launch production from the new SMS installed at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore sometime in May with dummy blowing of nitrogen in April,” he said.
He said RINL was now in the process of stabilising the expansion units.
The expansion project has cost the company Rs 12,500 crore.
For capital repairs and upgradation of facilities, the company is investing Rs 5,000 crore more, which will subsequently enhance the capacity by one million tonnes (mt).
As part of ramping up new units, blast furnace-1 will be shut down for 35 days.
By following pulverised coal injection, the performance of blast furnace will be enhanced. BF-2 upgradation will increase an additional capacity of 0.5 mt. Sinter plant is undergoing modernisation and all three converters will be replaced at SMS-1. The strategy is to have six new converters in both steel melt shops.
“We are expecting to stabilise the old and new units by May/June,” Choudhary said. Efforts are under way to enhance production from blast furnace-3.
He said the company was recently sanctioned a loan of Rs 2,650 crore by State Bank of India to meet its capital expenditure.
On the power problem, Choudhary said it remained a worry throughout the year and hoped that with the commissioning of 67.5 MW unit of the captive power plant shortly, the RINL would be in a comfortable position.
“When we complete the expansion of captive power plant, we will be in a position to give surplus power to the State grid,” he said.
Mr Choudhary said the company was setting up an office in Colombo to sell steel in that country. Later, the company would also explore the Gulf markets, he added.
sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in