Indian state-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), which has a production capacity of 7.3 million mt per annum, on March 28 shut down one of its three blast furnaces to cope with the lower availability of raw materials during the national lockdown, a company official said on Monday, March 30.
The official said that, following the shutdown of one of the three blast furnaces, the steel mill’s productivity would decline to 12,000 mt per day from a daily average of 18,000 mt.
The decision to shut down one blast furnace was taken to conserve raw material stocks available at the plant site in the southern Indian port town of Vishakhapatnam, amid difficulties in bringing in raw materials like iron ore and coking coal, as the entire road transportation network has been halted for the national lockdown since March 25, the official added.
