Public sector steel maker Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) recorded the highest ever production of hot metal from its blast furnace in a single day in the past two years. Its furnace produced 2,307 MT of hot metal on December 21, surpassing the previous best figure of 2,301 MT on March 29, 2016.
Execution of the blast furnace capital repair is planned in the first quarter of 2017-18. After the capital repair, hot metal production will be more than 3000 MT per day in its rated capacity.
NINL has set up an 1.1 MnT integrated iron and steel plant at Kalinganagar, Odisha. It is the country’s highest exporter of pig Iron since 2004. Presently, the products are steel billets, pig iron and LAM (Low ash metallurgical) coke along with nut coke, coke breeze, crude tar, ammonium sulphate and granulated slag.
NINL is selling more of its pig iron in the domestic market and is able to recover cost of production and stay EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) positive.
NINL has chalked out a plan to achieve steel output of five mtpa in two phases. Full capacity expansion estimated to cost INR 25,000-30,000 crore, is slated to be achieved by 2025. Apart from MMTC (that has a controlling stake of 49.9 per cent), two state government entities — Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol) own stakes in NINL. Central PSUs like National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Bhel Ltd and Mecon have minor equity participation.
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