Supply of coking coal from Adani Gangavaram Port to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant resumes

Resumption of coking coal supply to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant after strike, ensuring uninterrupted operations and production.

The supply of the coking coal from Adani Gangavaram port to Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (Visakhapatnam Steel Plant) finally resumed on Friday. The imported coal owned by the plant was stocked at the port since April 12 due to strike by the port’s workers.

Speaking to The Hindu, K.V.D. Prasad, General Secretary of Steel Executives’ Association, said the strike has been called off thus paving the way for supply of the coal from Friday.

After a series of negotiations, including filing of cases in A.P. High Court by the Steel Executives’ Association, protest rallies by the plant employees, intervention of Visakhapatnam Collector A. Mallikarjuna and letters by plant CMD Atul Bhatt in the past, the issue came to an end.

The supply operation was resumed at around 9 a.m. on Friday. On Day One, nearly 15,000 metric tons of coal would be supplied to the plant. This apart, 4,200 metric tons of limestone would also reach the plant. Remaining coal of 3.25 lakh tons would reach the plant in the next two weeks, the sources said.

In the A-shift, 4,248 metric tons of coal, and 2,300 mt in the B shift landed at the plant.

Another coking coal vessel will arrive from the US to Visakhapatnam on May 22. One more 75,000 metric tonnes of coal-laden vessel from Indonesia is yet to arrive here, the sources told The Hindu.

The non-supply of coal crippled the plant’s operations during this period.