Indian state-run steel producer Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) has been hit by an acute shortage of coking coal threatening to impact crude steel output with imported dry fuel stranded at port, a company official said on Tuesday, September 27.
According to the official, a large volume of imported Australian coking coal is lying stranded at Vishakhapatnam port and could not be transported to Bhilai steel mill in the central state of Chhattisgarh owing to logistical bottlenecks.
The official claimed that national transporter Indian Railways was “not giving priority” to transporting the imported coal from the port to the mill, leading to a sharp decline in the volume of coking coal available at the mill.
The 3.5 million mt per year capacity Bhilai steel mill is heavily dependent on imported coking coal, needing to import 80 percent of its requirement of coking coal to be blended with 20 percent domestic coal to feed its coke oven batteries.