The blast furnace has been idle since January 2022 due to very high coking coal prices.
In addition, RINL CEO Atul Bhatt promised to actively increase steel production at the plant from August. Visakhapatnam's production capacity amounts to 7.3 million tonnes per year, but is currently not being used at full capacity.
Currently, for example, furnaces 1 and 2 produced 419 thousand tonnes of pig iron in April. However, this is still 20 per cent more than in April 2022.
The Government of India opened RINL for privatisation in 2021. However, the idea was not welcomed by labour unions, opposition parties and the Andhra Pradesh government. They protested and approached the State High Court.
Presumably the central authorities backed down. Privatisation was announced in April 2023. The government announced that it was looking for partners to jointly manage the Visakhapatnam steel mill. Potential partners were offered different conditions of co-operation.
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