India’s NMDC Steel Limited, an arm of miner NMDC Limited, has commenced operation of its second coke oven battery (COB2) as it rushes to meet the new deadline of the end of June to commission its 3 million mt greenfield steel mill project, company sources said on Tuesday, April 25.
The sources said that the charging of the ovens has started and progressively all the 67 ovens which are part of COB2 will be activated. The company’s first coke oven battery (COB1) had been commissioned in October 2022.
The combined capacity of the coke oven battery is 1.6 million mt and its output will be consumed as feedstock for th eblast furnace of the steel mill nearing completion.
Currently, the output of the coke oven battery is partly being supplied to the mills of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the balance offered for commercial sale.
The Indian government is awaiting commercial commissioning of the steel mills before pushing the next phase of privatization of the asset in favour of private investors.