Nilachal Ispat Nigam to reduce costs

Nilachal Ispat Nigam to reduce costs

Indian trading company Minerals & Metals Trading Corp's (MMTC) subsidiary Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) aims to reduce its pig iron production costs by Rupees 2'500 ($54) per ton with the commencement of the operation of new coke oven battery and sinter plant. Coke oven battery which was installed by Konark Met Coke Ltd. (KMCL) at NINL's steelmaking unit in Duburi, is scheduled to start operation as of March 2004. The savings per ton of pig iron from coke will be Rupees 2'000 ($44) and Rupees 500 ($10) from sinter plant. NINL produced 470'000 tons of pig iron in 2002-2003 fiscal year and exported 238'000 tons valued at Rupees 1.6 billion ($35 million). NINL officials' target is to make the company one of the lowest cost producer of pig iron and steel in Orissa.