On Tuesday morning, an explosion occurred in the blast furnace (BF) No. 1 of SAIL’s BhilaI Steel Plant (BSP) in Chhattisgarh. The explosion was so loud that the walls of the blast furnace broke down and about 2,000 tonnes of hot metal spilled out of the furnace from a height of 45 metres and spread across 20 metres of adjoining area covering rail line and a stationed wagon loaded with scrap. Everything that came in the way of hot metal got embroiled and dissolved in the blazing liquid and fire broke out subsequently.
According to the sources about 25 to 30 workers are usually present at the site where accident took place. However, as the blast occurred at 6.15 am in the morning it was ‘shift change’ time and not many workers were present thus averting any human casualty. Only one worker that was present at the spot suffered heavy coughing due smoke inhalation and was admitted in the nearby hospital.
In order to prevent fire from spreading further, fire brigade was called immediately and fire was brought under control after five long hours.
Anticipated losses to be incurred
According to company’s officials, the repair work of furnace is going to take 15 to 30 days and that the production will normalise only after 1 to 2 months. The monetary expense for repair work is estimated to be in crores. The BF-1 rolls out 2,000 tonnes of hot metal daily and with the shut-down of furnace, the production loss estimated is around 0.03 to 0.06 MnT.
What’s happening with BSP’s other blast furnaces
BSP has total 8 blast furnaces out of which 8th BF was started recently in the first week of Feb’18. Thus, at present plant’s total hot metal production capacity comes around 7.5 MnT per annum. As informed by the industry sources, let us check the status of all the blast furnaces at BSP plant.
BF-1: Shut down due to abrupt reason of explosion on Tuesday i.e. 13 Feb’18 for 15 to 30 days. The daily production of the furnace is 1,800 to 2,000 tonnes of hot metal and thus, the production loss will come around 0.03 to 0.06 MnT.
BF-2: Has been closed permanently from Nov’17 or Dec’17. It also rolled out 18,00 to 2,000 tonnes of hot metal and the production loss from this furnace comes around 0.24 to 0.3 MnT in current fiscal that will end in Mar’18.
BF-3: This furnace manufactures 2,200 to 2,300 tonnes of hot metal daily, making it to the monthly average of 0.06 to 0.07 Mnt.
BF-4: This BF is under maintenance for one year from Jun’17 to Jun’18. It manufactures 2,600 to 2,700 tonnes of hot metal daily. Now the production loss from this furnace is estimated to be around 0.8 MnT till Mar’18 (end of FY18) and 0.95 MnT till Jun’18.
BF-5: This furnace manufactures 2,800 tonnes of hot metal daily, making it to the monthly production of 0.08 MnT.
BF-6: This furnace manufactures 2,800 tonnes of hot metal daily, making it to the monthly production of 0.08 MnT.
BF-7: This furnace manufactures 3,500 tonnes of hot metal daily, making it to the monthly production of 0.11 MnT.
BF-8: This blast furnace was started in the first week of Feb’18 and currently it rolls out hot metal of 2,500 tonnes daily. As SMS (Steel melting shop) no 3 is still not ready, the blast furnace is not able to work in its full capacity. Now, this will start after a month of two and then BF-8 will be capable of rolling out 7,000 to 8,000 tonnes of hot metal daily. Once this blast furnace is started in its full capacity, the BF-1 and BF-3 might be closed permanently in the future.
Now excluding 8th BF which was started only recently, if we calculate the total production loss of BSP for FY18 from 7 blast furnaces due to shut down or maintenance work, it comes around 1.25 to 1.30 MnT while the total capacity of these furnaces is 5 MnT. This production loss is thus likely to impact SAIL’s steel supply in the market. As another steel major, Tata Steel’s Kalinganagar plant is also undergoing repair work, the shortage of supply from major players is likely to hit the domestic steel prices of India in upcoming months.
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