Hit by non-availability of coking coal following a workers’ strike at the Adani-owned Gangavaram port in the south, government run steel producer, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is in talks with Paradip port in neighbouring Odisha state for a ‘commodity loan’ of 50,000 mt of coal and also re-routing two coal bearing ships from Gangavaram to Vishakhapatnam port close to its steel mill location, company sources said on Tuesday. Operations at RINL have been severely hit following shortage of the key steelmaking commodity.
The first vessel is expected to the berthed at government run Vishakhapatnam port today, April 23, and coal supplies may resume tomorrow onwards, sources said adding that the second vessel would take some time to berth at the port. The two vessels have a combined capacity of 150,000 mt of coking coal, which account for 15-20 days of requirement for RINL’s annual 7.3 million mt steelmaking capacity.
Meanwhile, a commodity loan would mean coal would be brought in from another port, and a similar amount of the commodity would be sent back once supplies at RINL normalise.
The company is operating only one of its three blast furnaces and the five coke oven batteries, although operational, are performing “below threshold limit”. “Right now, coking coal inventories at RINL are at a bare minimum and there is hardly any back-up stock. So, there is an immediate need to work on the raw material supplies,” sources said.