RINL stocks precarious owing to K-K line shutdown

Sources say existing iron ore stocks at steel plant can last four to five days

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant suffers from raw material security for want of captive iron ore mines.

The shutdown of Kirandul-Kothavalasa railway line following rolling down of boulders on to the track near Anantagiri under the influence of incessant rain in early October has forced the officials of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to keep their fingers crossed.

The closure of goods traffic, which may take mid-December for resumption, has seriously affected the buffer stock of iron ore – the main raw material required for producing hot metal from the blast furnaces of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.

Reliable sources told

The Hindu that the existing stock can last for four to five days. Earlier, as part of raw material security, it used to have a stock for 40 days. RINL, a navratna company and a corporate entity of the VSP, has a long-term agreement with the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) for sourcing its iron ore requirement from Bailadilla mines in Chhattisgarh.

Though raw material is now being brought via Rayagada-Vizianagaram route, due to heavy congestion, the movement has remained slow. Now RINL is getting three to four rakes each consisting of 58 wagons per day. Before shutdown of K-K line, the company used to get at least five rakes ranging up to 10 rakes to ensure safe operations and enough buffer stock.

Despite paralysing of cargo movement through K-K line, considered lifeline for the RINL, the company is now able to produce 17,000 tonne of hot metal. “If the tempo is sustained we will achieve the target of five million tonne by March, 31, 2017.

However, it all depends how fast the boulder-hit tracks are restored,” a senior official pointed out on condition of anonymity.

RINL is also making alternative arrangements to increase its stock position by sourcing raw material from Orissa Minerals Development Corporation Ltd (OMDC) mines in neighbouring Odisha and Donimalai iron ore mines in Karnataka.

RINL is now ramping up various units under its 6.3 million tonne project completed with an investment of ₹12,300 crore through internal accruals. It is also in the process of scaling up production by administering pulverised coal injection to increase efficiency of Krishna and Godavari blast furnaces. The new furnace (yet to be named) as part of expansion project is built with PCI technology. The modernisation of blast furnaces at a cost of ₹4,000 crore will scale up the production capacity to 7.3 million tonne.

For the present 6.3 million tonne capacity, RINL which does not have captive mines, needs 10 to 11 million tonne of iron ore.