India: NINL Set to Fire Up Blast Furnace from End of April

One of the Country's largest pig iron producers, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) is set to fire up its 1 MnT furnace at Kalinga Nagar by the end of April, after having been shut down for over four months owing to capital repair works. While speaking to SteelMint, a senior official of the company revealed that the furnace would be fired up between April 25 to 30. Subsequently, controlled charging would be done in the first week of May and commercial production would start within the fortnight.

NINL has also released a purchase tender for iron Ore further indicating that the plant would commence within the next few weeks. Similarly, process for procuring coking coal has also been initiated by the company to fulfill its post commencement demands. According to data maintained by SteelMint, company has imported 66,000 MT coking coal from Australia.

However, details about the amount of hot metal and pig iron NINL would be able to produce soon after commencement remains shrouded in ambiguity. According NINL Managing Director SS Mohanty, capital repair works have taken capacity utilization of the furnace from 50% to above 90% which would lead to a considerable increase in Hot Metal production. However what amount of Hot Metal would be utilized for Pig Iron production and what would be diverted towards production of finished products remains to be seen.

NINL has an established distribution network for Pig Iron both domestically and in the international market and it is being believed that the company would be in a strong position to scale Pig Iron production significantly for the next few months depending on market conditions.

Indian pig iron prices increased by INR 6,000/MT (USD 93)

Indian pig iron prices have increased by around INR 6,000/MT (USD 93) in last four months, since NINL is out of market. Market participants expect prices may fall after NINL comes in the market with higher production.