Indian government-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is likely to re-operationalize by August a blast furnace which has been lying idle since January 2022, company sources said on Thursday, May 25.
The sources said that bringing back the idle blast furnace into production is in line with RINL’s chairman and managing director Atul Bhatt’s recent statement that RINL will be ramping up production from its 7.3 million mt steel mill located in the southern port town of Vishakhapatnam starting from August.
The move to “re-fire” the idle blast furnace will come close on the heels of RINL’s two operational blast furnaces (I &II) achieving their highest-ever hot metal output of 419,000 mt in April this year, up 20 percent year on year.
The third blast furnace had been idled last year owing to the high cost of coking coal.