Rail rake shortage hurts steel delivery of Odisha, Karnataka steel mills

Industry officials said inventory build-up at various plant locations is also an issue

With rail rakes getting diverted to serve thermal coal power plants, domestic steel companies in Odisha and Karnataka are facing outbound rail rake shortage leading to steel markets remaining unserved amid the ongoing peak season.

“There is a more than 50 per cent shortage of (outbound) rail rakes for the last two months now. We used to get about 7 rakes per day but now we get just about 2-3 rakes,” V R Sharma, managing director at Jindal Steel, told Business Standard.

Naveen Jindal-led Jindal Steel & Power has its plant at Angul, state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) at