Coke battery fire could push Sail into spot market

State-controlled Steel Authority of India (Sail) could be forced to enter the spot market for metallurgical coke if a fire at one of its coke batteries earlier this week forces the facility off line.

A fire broke out in the natural gas pipeline feeding a coke oven battery at Sail's Bhilai steel plant on 9 October, killing nine people and injuring 14 others. The affected battery, which was shut for maintenance at the time, is one of 11 at the Bhilai steel plant in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh with met coke production capacity of 880,000 t/yr. The steel plant is Sail's largest, with crude steel capacity of 7mn t/yr.

"Steelmaking operations at Bhilai have returned to normal," Sail said. The company said it was too early to give details of sourcing coke or coal for the plant.

But such a large fire could take the coke oven battery off line indefinitely and push Sail into the domestic spot market for met coke, an Indian trader said.

"Sail was always self-sufficient for met coke, making sure to add coke oven capacity before adding steel capacity. Thus they never needed to buy met coke, but it is possible this type of incident could force them into the market," the trader said.

Sail expanded crude steel capacity at the Bhilai plant from 4.07mn t/yr to 7mn t/yr earlier this year.