Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited’s (RINL’s) forged wheel factory, which was to be commissioned in December, 2020, has now been slated to start commercial production in February, 2021, it is learnt from reliable sources. The final commissioning got held up due to the pandemic. However, now that international travel has been eased, commissioning experts from SMS Germany are arriving at the plant and finished products are expected to be rolled out next month.
The project management and consultancy is from MECON. Design, engineering, manufacture and supply of machineries, and commissioning of the plant is being done by a consortium led by the SMS Group of Germany and its Indian office. The fuel gas (propane/LPG) will be supplied by Indian Oil Corporation Limited.
Sources informed that all the construction activities, ie, installation and testing of plant and machinery at the site have been completed. Hot trial of the first forged wheel from the forging line has also been successfully completed. “The unit is ready for commissioning and commercial operation is expected to commence within the next few weeks,” a source indicated.
Earlier, the plant was to be commissioned in April-May of last calendar, a proposal that had to be stalled because of the Covid-19 impact. Later, RINL Chairman P.K. Rath had indicated a December, 2020 commissioning, which too got deferred because of Covid-19-imposed travel bans. RINL has been the setting up the Forged Wheel Plant (FWP) at Lalganj, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, to meet
Indian Railways’ (IR’s) growing demand for import substitutes.
As per the off-take agreement between RINL & Indian Railways, RINL has to set up the plant and supply forged rail wheels to Railways with total assured quantities of 55,000 units in the first year, 70,000 units in the next year and then 80,000 units per year up to year 2043 or for a further period on renewal of the agreement.
The input material for producing the above wheels, ie, continuous cast rounds (CCRs) of 330-480 mm diameter, is to be sourced from the new caster at the SMS-2 of Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) installed under the phased 7.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) expansion programme.
Jan liquid steel target flat
RINL has set a liquid steel production target of 5.3 lakh tonnes for January 2021, which is almost flat compared to the 5.22 lakh tonnes achieved in December, 2020. It may be mentioned that the December, 2020 liquid steel output volume was marginally behind the targeted 5.4 lakh tonnes.
Total sales in December, 2020 were at 4.71 lakh tonnes, up almost 13% month-on-month against 4.17 lakh tonnes achieved in November, 2020.
Domestic sales comprised an overwhelming 3.6 lakh tonnes against 1.1 lakh tonnes of export sales. It may be recalled in November, 2020, in the 4.17 lakh tonnes of sales, exports had comprised 1.3 lakh tonnes.
Inventory
With domestic demand on an upswing, RINL’s inventory has decreased a little further from 1.2 lakh tonnes as on December 31, 2020 from 1.3 lakh tonnes in end-November, 2020.
— by Madhumita Mookerji
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