India: AM/NS India starts construction of coke oven battery at Hazira plant

AM/NS India is setting up its own coke oven plants for captive consumption, civil construction for one of which has recently started, as per information available to SteelMint.

A source informed that AM/NS India did not so far have a coke oven plant, making it fully dependent on the merchant coke market, where prices can get volatile and are often governed by global developments. The mill was producing steel by purchasing met coke from the domestic and overseas merchant markets. AM/NS India's purchase volume of imported met coke is around 1 mntpa, as per data maintained with SteelMint.

Two COBs will come up initially to serve AM/NS India's present demand, the source indicated. But, as the Hazira plant's expansion to 15 mntpa unfolds from the present 9 mntpa, AM/NS India will be looking to install a larger blast furnace, for which four new COBs will be required for producing good quality coke and of larger size too. Thus, eventually four new coke oven battery (COB) plants will come up at the steel major's Hazira complex in Gujarat.

The contract for setting up the first two coke oven batteries 1 and 2 (COB#1 and #2) has been awarded to Bhilai Engineering Corporation Limited (BECL). "Work for battery building has begun at the Hazira complex," confirmed a source. Although BECL will be erecting the first two COBs, the technology belongs to Paulwurth, clarified the source.

These four COBs will be set up using highly modern technology where the coal will travel directly to the hopper from the belt and then get stamped and the coke will be inserted in the oven.

The combined capacity of the first two COBs is around 1.5 mntpa and the deadline for completion of the project is 2025. There is no clarity yet on the deadline for the next two COBs.

AM/NS India has both electric arc furnace (EAF) and blast furnace (BF) facilities for steel-making at its Hazira complex. Crude steel production over the first three quarters in FY2022-23 was 4.95 mnt.