Jindal Steel & Power’s (JSPL’s) coal gasification, DRI and EAF units, which had been commissioned in 2014 but had continued rather inconsistently ever since, have restarted on more consistent coal supplies and it looks like production will continue on a sustained basis henceforth from this facility, SteelMint learned from market sources.
The coal gas or syn gas, DRI and EAF units were all part of the original Angul facility and comprised phase 1 of operations when these had been commissioned in 2014. However, the facilities could be operated only intermittently because of hiccups in coal supply. It may be mentioned that the units had been set up on the basis of coal gasification. JSPL did own a mine, based on which it had been encouraged to set up the EAF facility at Angul. It was supposed to draw coal from that mine, convert it into gas and then use that coal gas to make DRI and the latter was supposed to be used in the EAF for crude steel-making. In fact, it was slated to be the world’s largest syn gas-based 2-MTPA DRI plant based on the coal gasification process (CGP).
However, in 2014 all the coal block allocations were cancelled by the Supreme Court and JSPL’s mine too became a casualty and the steel biggie became dependent on market supplies for coal. Matters were made worse over the last many years for the company with Coal India Limited (CIL) turning its focus on the thermal power plants as its priority sector for supplying coal.
Coal Consistency
Some of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s (MCL’s) mines (like Talcher, for instance), being located close to the Angul works, it was logistically ideal for JSPL’s coal procurement. Recently, MCL increased its coal production, making things more advantageous for the Angul facility. MCL has increased the number of its monthly auctions from one to two, bolstering supplies to its end-users in the process.
For the last three weeks MCL has increased their coal production and, therefore, JSPL restarted the coal gasifiers, DRI and EAF.
Will it increase its billets exports?
This decision is subject to market conditions, it is learnt. If there is more export demand, then JSPL would export more but if there is stronger demand in the domestic market then the company would prefer to focus on converting the billets into rebars and supplying these in the domestic market.
At present, JSPL is exporting 60,000-70,000 MT of billets per month.
The EAF is of 250 tonnes capacity which can produce about 100,000 MT billets per month. There is a second line of production comprising the blast furnace route, through which 300,000 MT of crude steel are being manufactured per month.
~Written by Madhumita Mookerji
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