The world's largest independent steel trader Stemcor has announced the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Sathavahana Ispat Limited (SVIL), a producer of pig iron and coke located in Hyderabad, India.
Under the terms of the agreement, SVIL has issued new preferential shares to finance its expansion plans and Stemcor has acquired a 14.69 percent stake in the enlarged shareholder structure.
In March 2007, SVIL commissioned a metcoke facility with an annual production capacity of 300,000 mt in the Indian state of Karnataka, which is close to the sea ports of Chennai and Marmugao. Currently, around 70 percent of the plant's output is consumed by SVIL's own pig iron plant, whereas the remainder is supplied to the domestic market.
In scope of the expansion program, SVIL will install two additional coke oven batteries, thus increasing the capacity to 450,000 mt per annum. Surplus output will be used to meet increasing demand for metcoke from steelworks in Bellary, which currently require more than three million mt per annum and mostly depend on imports.
Meanwhile, SVIL's pig iron plant, which is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh, 50 km south of the coke production facility and close to the Bellary-Hospet iron ore mines, has an annual output capacity of 210,000 mt of foundry pig iron. The plant supplies around three percent of Indian domestic consumption.