Gopalkrishna: Everyone’s invited

Calcutta, Feb. 25: After the Tatas and a German consortium, it’s now the turn of the Chennai-based Shriram group to approach the Bengal government with a proposal for seting up a coke oven plant inHaldia.

To be set up at an investment of Rs 1,600 crore, the plant will have a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes.

WBIDC managing director Gopalkrishna said: “The company wants to set up a coke oven plant. It has already initiated a feasibility study. Shriram group chairman R. Thyagarajan met me recently to discuss about the investment plans.”

The feasibility study will be completed by April. “The picture will become clear after that. The state is ready to provide any help if they set up the coke oven plant in Haldia,” he added.

The Shriram group is a well-known name in the financial sector. Shriram Chits, with an annual auction turnover exceeding Rs 2,692 crore, has been present in the country for the last 28 years.

The Shriram group’s aggregate turnover has already crossed Rs 5,000 crore. The group has a strong presence in the engineering sector through Shriram EPC Ltd. The products and services of the company include project engineering and construction of turnkey plants, metallurgical coke production and coke oven doors. It has a technical collaboration with Husumer Schiffswerft and Lurgi of Germany.

The group also provides truck finance through Shriram Recon Trucks.

Shriram has entered the pharmaceutical sector through Medispan Limited. It is present in the auto components sector through Rambal Limited and in the IT sector through Millennium Infocomm and Shriram CyberTech.

The government feels that the group has enough liquidity to set up a Rs 1,600-crore plant at Haldia, Writers’ Buildings sources said.

Bengal has, so far, received three proposals for coke oven plants in Haldia.

Apart from the recent Shriram proposal, the Tatas have already expressed their keenness to set up a coke oven plant at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. Feasibility studies have already been initiated by Tata Steel. Gopalkrishna said that a team from Tisco had already visited Haldia.

The other interested group is a German consortium led by Dr Carl Otto Still, an international specialist in setting up coke oven batteries. The group is in talks with the state government to set up a 2 million-tonne coke oven plant at an estimated investment of Rs 1,800 crore.

However, some problems seem to have cropped up between the state government and the German consortium over the financing of the project. Gopalkrishna said, “It is premature to comment on the matter.”

Coal with low ash content is required for making metcoke at coke oven plants. This coal is usually imported from Australia and China. Therefore, the plants need to be located near a port. Since Haldia has port facilities, the manufacturers want to set up the units there.

Coke oven plants are becoming popular following the upturn in the steel industry. Only 30 per cent of metcoke, one of the major inputs in the steel industry, is produced in India. The rest is imported from China. But China has drastically reduced metcoke exports as its domestic demand for steel has increased.

The price of coke has skyrocketed in the recent months. This has created a lot of interest among the domestic as well as the international players.