Hit by non-availability of coking coal following a workers’ strike at the Adani-owned Gangavaram port, CPSE steel-maker RINL (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd) is in talks with Paradip port for a “commodity loan” of 50,000 tonnes (of coal), while it is re-routing two coal bearing ships from Gangavaram to Vizag port.
Operations at RINL have been severely hit following shortage of the key steel-making commodity.
The first vessel is expected to the berthed at the state-run-port today and coal supplies may resume tomorrow onwards, sources in the Steel Ministry said.
The two vessels have a combined capacity of 150,000 tonnes of coking coal, which account for 15-20 days of requirement for the steel-maker.
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“We are anticipating that berthing of one of the vessels at Vizag port will be carried out by end-of-day today. And it will be another 6- 8 hours post unberthing, for the coal to reach the steel plant. By tomorrow we should have some clarity on supply of coal to the plant,” the official in the know said.
The second vessel will take “some more time to berth”, the official said adding that in the meantime, RINL is in talks for a “commodity loan”. A commodity loan would mean coal would be brought in from another port, and a similar amount of the commodity would be sent back once supplies at RINL normalise.
Crisis from April 12
According to the Ministry official, RINL is already operating at a “substantial lower capacity” particularly in absence of coking coal.
Of the three blast furnaces that the company has, only one is operating. And all the five coke oven batteries, although operational, are performing “below threshold limit”. A coke oven battery is a set of ovens that process the coal into coke.
“Right now coking coal stocks at RINL are at a bare minimum and there is hardly any back-up stock. So there is an immediate need to work on the raw material supplies,” the official in the know said.
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In the meantime, the steel-maker has also reached out to the district administration to help resolve the workers’ strike and “normalise operations” at Gangavaram.
The crisis at RINL began April 12 onwards when coking coal supplies were hit as a workers’ strike at Gangavaram port impacted the supplies. Appeals have been made to lift the strike and allow passage of the coal to RINL, but have not yielded results.
RINL relies on NMDC for supply of iron-ore and buys coal (coking) from the market.