Gujarat NRE Coke's Steel Plant in Kutch commences production

(December 28, 2005)

December 2005 has been one of the hottest months for Gujarat NRE Coke. While the 1st ever coal shipment from its Australian mines is on the high seas on way to India, the steel plant being set up in Kutch district at Village Lunva commenced production of Hot metal, billets and steel rebars.

Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd., GNCL, the largest non-captive manufacturer of low ash metallurgical coke in India, today announced commencement of commercial production at the new steel plant set up at Village Lunva in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch (Gujarat).

The plant which has been set up with an investment of nearly Rs. 50 crores will manufacture billets/blooms/ingots and hot rolled products.

The steel making facility envisages manufacturing Steel Rebars from MS Scrap, Sponge iron, Ferro Alloys and CI Scrap. It is also in the process of setting up a captive power plant of 20 MW capacities. The steel plant and captive power plant are in the adjacent premises of its coke manufacturing facility at Bhachau Unit. The CPP would be using the waste heat generated by Coke Oven Plant thereby leading to substantial savings in power cost. Besides this the Company has already set up a wind farm with 25MW capacity in Kutch itself to provide cheap green power to the steel plant.

Gujarat NRE Coke has emerged as one of the fastest growing manufacturers of low ash metallurgical coke over the years and has embarked on a capacity expansion initiative to keep up with current and projected demand. It has set up a new manufacturing unit in Karnataka and purchased two coal mines in Australia to strengthen its business sustainability. Besides the Company has also acquired substantial interests in a no. of mineral exploration projects in Australia, Peru and Chile which would ensure continued sustainable growth in the future.