Bangladesh-based long steel producer GPH Ispat Ltd has announced that the management of the company has started the hot commissioning of its new plant, which is an expansion of GHP Ispat’s existing operations, with the help of a plant supplier through online communication. The cold commissioning of the plant was completed on January 14 this year and the hot commissioning had been expected to be completed by June 30. Amid the commissioning of the new plant, the company’s shares indicated a sharp increase.
However, almost all foreign experts involved in the plant commissioning had left from the project site without completion of hot commissioning due to the coronavirus.
During the hot commissioning, production of marketable products has started, but not the official commercial production. The management wants to continue to produce trial products and sell them starting from September 7.
The annual production capacity of the plant is 840,000 mt of mild steel billet and 640,000 mt of mild steel rod and medium section products such as support beams and flat bars. After starting full commercial production, the plant’s annual production capacity will be 1 million mt of mild steel billet and 760,000 mt of mild steel rod and medium section products.
“We hope that we will be able to announce commercial production at the plant in December,” said Kamrul Islam, executive director for finance at GPH Ispat.