India’s Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) or Vizag Steel plans to restart its second blast furnace in the first week of July, according to sources.
The state-owned steelmaker had stopped operations of its blast furnace-2 since mid-April amid the COVID-19 lockdown to avoid stockpiling of inventory. RINL’s domestic sales was substantially hit by the demand slumped caused by the nationwide lockdown imposed by the Indian government.
In April and May, the company’s sales volume were largely depending on the export markets. RINL planned to increase steel exports in June, as reported by Davis Index.
Currently, RINL is operating with a single blast furnace producing 6,500mt of hot metal per day. In May, the company’s output was 5,700mt of hot metal. The company has three blast furnaces with a total production of 7,500mt hot metal per day. RINL produces around 18,000-18,500mt hot metal when all three blast furnaces are functional.