Adhunik Metaliks, a manufacturer of automotive steels is slated to commission a 1.2 million tonne pellet plant in Jamshedpur for
merchant sales in the eastern region-home to the country's iron ore base.
The 400-crore pellet unit has come up under Orissa Manganese
and Minerals (OMML), a 100% subsidiary of AML. It will primarily cater to the
captive needs of sponge iron units and steelmakers using blast furnace route
across Orissa, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
“It's part of a strategic move to insulate our
operations from fluctuations in the iron ore trade,” Manoj Agarwal,
managing director, AML said. With growth slowing down in the auto sector, AML,
which supplies for auto companies, is banking on pellets for revenues.
The company has now turned its focus on value addition of
iron ore fines due to lower demand from auto sector. “Core to ore is the
company's new mantra. We will focus on value addition of ore from our Ghatkuri
mines. We hope to reach 90% capacity at the pellet plant within five months
with plans to raise it to 1.6 mt,” Agarwal said.
The market for pellets in the region alone is estimated at
close to 20 million tonnes per annum. While sponge iron units in Orissa, Jharkhand and
Orissa have a requirement of 15 million tonnes, the rest of the demand will
come from steel units using blast furnaces.
“We will process low grade fines from the region with
iron content of 56-58% and also use some of it from our own mines to produce
basic and high acidic pellets. This kind of 'ready-to-serve' pellets are
referred to as “prepared burden” and have seen a growing demand,”
he said. “We want to ease the demand out of mining areas,” Agarwal
added.
In the last few months, a number of mines have been closed
in Orissa due to illegal mining issues leading to a complete halt in
dispatches. “We are concentrating on developing our mineral base. We have
started dispatches from our captive iron ore mines at Kulum recently,”
Adhunik's chief financial officer, Anil Jain said.
Source: The Economic Times
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