The modernisation project of the Visakhapatnam steel plant - Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd - is going on smoothly and a million tonne more will be added to the present capacity of 6.3 mt, according to the Chairman and Managing Director, P Madhusudan.

He said here in an interview that the project was taken up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore and it would not only result in capacity addition but also in considerable cost-cutting.

The completion of installation of pulverised coal injection (PCI) technology on three blast furnaces as part of the project would result in an annual saving of Rs 300 crore on coal consumption. Coal consumption in each blast furnace would be brought down by 150 kg for producing one tonne of hot metal by 2018-19.

Industry scenario

Madhusudan said though 2016-17 remained a challenging year for the steel industry, RINL could bring down the net loss by over Rs 500 crore due to thrust on improvement in techno-economic parameters and adoption of cost reduction methods.

He said coal prices were on the higher side. RINL was confident of producing five mt of crude steel during the current year and increasing it further to 6.5 mt during 2018-19 and 7.5 mt during 2019-20.

The CMD said the blast furnace-2 would be commissioned post the installation of PCI technology in mid-September. Sinter plant machine stabilisation was over. Crude steel production would go up to 5.4 mt from last year’s 4.1 mt during the current fiscal.

Referring to sluggishness in the market, he said by producing greater volumes, RINL could achieve a sales turnover of Rs 900 crore during July. Market was showing signs of recovery and he expressed hopes that it would improve during the rest of the year.

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