India: RINL’s Crude Steel Output Likely to Hit over Maintenance Delay

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), the public sector steel producer operating in Vizag, has reported subdued performance at one of its blast furnaces, thus impeding the monthly steel output noted from the company.

Sources aware of the situation have informed that RINL’s third blast furnace (BF-3) has not been operating efficiently in recent times due to some technical issues, which may take almost 2-3 weeks for recovery. Although company officials were unable to comment on this.

It is pertaining to note that RINL has three blast furnaces at its plant location.

Incidentally, the sub-optimal performance from the third unit could result in a lower steel production, at a time when one of the remaining two blast furnaces has already been shut down due to weak market conditions. Apparently, RINL has temporarily halted operation at BF-1 since Sep’19.

Market participants have anticipated that the operational delay could lead to nearly 20% decline in RINL’s monthly crude steel output during Dec’19.

RINL had reported 370,000 MT crude steel production in the previous month, which is expected to fall by around 50,000-60,000 MT in Dec’19.

RINL is one of the largest steel producers in India with a rated capacity of 6.3 MnT per annum. The company has subsequently raised rebar production to manage the shortage of hot metal thus limiting the production of structure and round products whose inventory is currently higher than the former.

However, a potential reduction in billet output could possibly affect the company's exports in the near term.