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A 28-30 per cent surge in global freight costs amid geopolitical tensions, including the escalating West Asia situation, is emerging as the biggest challenge for India's steel industry, even as domestic operations and raw material supplies remain largely stable, a senior Tata Steel official said. The sharp rise in shipping rates, triggered by instability in West Asia and the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict, is significantly increasing logistics costs for steelmakers dependent on imported coking coal, he said. "For steel, the biggest impact is freight. Freight rates have gone up by almost 28-30 per cent... This is the direct impact. First, the Russia-Ukraine war, and now the West Asia situation... This is definitely having a cascading effect on almost all countries," Tata Steel Vice-President (Corporate Services) D B Sundara Ramam told PTI. Despite global disruptions, the steel industry has so far managed to maintain production levels, though rising freight and logistics costs are
India's diversification of energy sources and enhancing access to critical minerals are crucial for the country's economy, but this shift has introduced new challenges, Tata Steel CEO and Managing Director T V Narendran said on Thursday. Addressing the AIMA Leadership Conclave, Narendran termed India's energy and critical minerals diversification move as a "layered vulnerability". "The challenge is obvious while we are diversifying our sources of energy and critical minerals, and we must; this diversification is also a layered vulnerability, not just dependence on imports but also dependence on political goodwill that allows these imports to flow," he said. He further noted that this decade began with the pandemic, an enormous disruption that forced governments to act swiftly, spurred rapid advances in science and pushed businesses and societies to adapt and find ways to cope. Referring to the Covid-19 crisis, he said the pandemic was followed by a succession of shocks -- fractured
Jindal Steel on Tuesday announced commissioning a basic oxygen furnace (BoF) of 3MTPA capacity as part of its ongoing over Rs 20,000 crore expansion project at Angul in Odisha. With the installation of the new BoF, the plant's crude steel making capacity has increased to 9 million tonne per annum (MTPA) from 6 MTPA earlier, Jindal Steel said in a statement. A basic oxygen furnace (BoF) converts molten iron or hot metal into steel using gaseous oxygen. The Naveen Jindal group company is in process of investing over Rs 20,000 crore to scale up the capacity of its Angul facility to 12 MTPA making it one the country's largest single location steel manufacturing unit. Jindal Steel said it has commissioned its 250 MT BoF converter at the Angul integrated steel plant, adding 3 MTPA of crude steelmaking capacity. "The new BoF is now running, and the first heat has been successfully tapped. This achievement marks a significant step toward Angul's goal of becoming a 12 MTPA steel-making pla
Solar solutions provider Orb Energy on Friday announced its collaboration with Safal Group firm Mabati Rolling Mills to accelerate Kenya's green transition through large-scale solar adoption. The collaboration underscores the vital role of solar power in helping energy-intensive industries reduce their carbon footprint while ensuring long-term energy security and cost competitiveness, Orb Energy founder and CEO Damian Miller said in a statement. According to the statement, the Orb Energy, a solar energy solutions provider in India and Africa, has partnered with Safal Group firm Mabati Rolling Mills to accelerate Kenya's green transition through large-scale solar adoption. As part of this partnership, Orb Energy has successfully installed a 2.9 MW rooftop solar system at Mabati Rolling Mills' (MRM) Mariakani facility which is one of the largest rooftop solar installations in Kenya, Miller said. The system will generate approximately 4,200 MWh of clean electricity annually, the compa