India Steel Market Watch
December 1; Tata Steel’s ferro chrome plant at Gopalpur would likely be ready by April 2016, T V Srinivas Shenoy, Chief (Marketing & Sales) Ferro Alloys division, Tata Steel, told ISMW on the sidelines of manganese/chrome ores and ferro alloys summit organised by the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI).
The ferro chrome plant is the anchor project of the proposed industrial park being put up by Tata Steel in the area.
The ferro chrome plant will have a capacity of around 55,000-60,000 tons per annum, Shenoy said.
Industry sources said due to the delay in instalment of some power transmitters for supply of power to the project, work was delayed. Work is going on in full swing and it will take another four months to complete.
Speaking at the summit, Shenoy said ferro alloy makers are sandwiched between ore producers and steel-makers, who consume the ferro alloys produced.
However, despite all this, the ferro alloys industry has an annual turnover of Rs 19,000 crore. “Currently around 30-35% cost of the ferro alloy plant is power and the rest are labour and logistics among others,” he said.
The depressed commodity cycle has impacted iron ore, ferro chrome, nickel and exchange rates apart from finished steel prices, Shenoy said.
In between December 2014 and December 2015 iron ore prices have dropped from $71.2 per ton to $43.5 per ton, while ferro chrome prices have declined from Rs 69,500 per ton to Rs 59,500 per ton even as exchange rates have depreciated from 61.82 to 65.68 against the dollar.