Indian steelmaker Uttam Galva Metallics Limited (UGML) has successfully commissioned blast furnace No. 2 at its Wardha steel mill in the western state of Maharashtra, Nithia Capital, which has acquired the company, said in a statement on Wednesday, September 14.
The blast furnace with a capacity of 700,000 mt of hot metal per year, will largely be utilized to supply the hot metal and pig iron requirements at the adjacent steelmaking facilities of Uttam Value Steels Limited (UVSL).
The work on construction of the blast furnace started in 2015 but could not be completed owing to financial constraints faced by the previous owners, the statement said.
One of the primary objectives of Nithia Capital’s acquisition of both UGML and UVSL in December 2020 was to complete this unfinished project within 18 months.
This additional capacity will supplement blast furnace No. 1 which has now been taken down for refurbishment and capacity enhancement, after which UGML will have a hot metal production capacity of over 1.5 million mt per year.
The next stage will be to ramp up the hot metal capacity of the Wardha steel mill to 2 million mt, the company statement said.
