Gujarat NRE Coke Limited, producer of low-ash metallurgical coke, is all set to begin work on its Rs 800-crore greenfield coke plant at Ativaram village in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.
“The work on the project would begin in a month or so while commercial production would take another two-and-a-half years," said company chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Jagatramka.
Speaking to Business Standard here on Wednesday, he said the plant would create direct employment for about 1,500 people and indirect for about 6,000. It would have a capacity of one million tonne and also a 60 Mw power plant for captive consumption. “We will fund the project from internal accruals,” he said.
Arun Kumar was here to participate in a seminar organised by the Australian Trade Commission.
This is company’s first project on the east coast. “We chose Andhra Pradesh because of the Krishnapatnam port connectivity for our imports and exports. The plant would cater to the coke needs of steel companies in the state,” he said.
This apart, it would also invest another Rs 800 crore for expanding the plant at Gujarat. At present, it has 1.25 million tonne per annum capacity, which would increased by one million tonne post expansion. This would be taken up simultaneously along with the greenfield project in Andhra Pradesh.
The company imported coking coal from Australia, where it owns two mines, for its two washeries in Gujarat. This helped it reduce the cost of production of coke as the capital and revenue costs of locating the washeries in Australia were high. This also ensured the use of inhouse raw material, he said.
So far, it has invested A$350 million (about Rs 1,358 crore) in the two mines and would invest $450 million (about Rs 1,746 crore) over the next four years to take the coking coal production capacity from 2.2 million tonne to six million tonne.
