Ispat To Sell Sponge Iron, Directly Reduced Iron From June

Starting in June Ispat Industries will be marketing sponge iron and DRI to the open market. The decision is a shift foir the company, which earlier was keeping the sponge iron and DRI for internal consumption.

According to company sources, Ispat has identified ready markets in automobile foundry units and forging units in the western and southern regions for its DRI and sponge iron.

Ispat has a finished steel making capacity of 2.4 million metric tons a year. Ispat's DRI capacity is 1.6 million metric tons a year.

The company has firmed up plans to augment its steel making capacity to 3 million metric tons in the next few months.

Ispat also has the option of going for a feed mix combination of sponge iron, hot metal and scrap for feeding its twin shell electric arc furnace. The combined raw material feed mix can be used in various combinations to produce liquid steel at Ispat's manufacturing facility at Dolvi near Mumbai.

According to the sources, with international scrap prices falling significantly in the last two months, Ispat has decided to use more scrap in its Dolvi plant. With the decision to use a prudent mix of hot metal/pig iron, scrap and sponge iron/DRI in place of a hot metal and DRI combination, the company is confident that its production costs would go down substantially.