The Hindu : FFE Mineral to build non-recovery coke plants

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

Business

Business

FFE Mineral to build non-recovery coke plants

By Our Corporate Reporter

CHENNAI, FEB. 7. FFE Minerals India Pvt. Ltd., a fully owned subsidiary of the F. L. Smidth Group of Denmark, has entered into an exclusive agreement with Sesa Kembla Coke Company for building non-recovery coke oven plants in India. Sesa Kembla Coke Company is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Sesa Goa. Mitsui is the principal shareholder of Sesa Goa and provides the Sesa group with technical and financial support.

Addressing presspersons here recently, Rudy Edge, President and Whole-time Director, FFE Minerals, said the technology offered heat recovery suitable for power generation making the installations of such ovens attractive as a return on investment.

Mr. Rudy said the technology for coke making `Sesa energy recovery technology' produced excellent coke quality for a given coal blend and had the lowest pollution levels of comparable technologies. The by-product was clean electrical energy.

He said the conventional coke ovens operating in the advanced countries had problems in meeting environmental requirements and consequently coke production in those regions had been declining over the years. The Indian steel industry was experiencing supply gaps of coke which till recently was imported mainly from China. The explosion in coke demand from China had resulted in an acute short supply in the global market resulting in steep price increase.

Major steel producers were already planning to set up captive non-recovery type coke ovens and the company was executing one such project for Mangalore Fertilisers and Chemicals, Mr. Rudy said. He said Sesa Kembla's clients included Essar Steel, Kirloskar Foundries, Nirma and Jindal Vijayanagar Steel among others and it was operating its existing plant in Goa.

He said negotiations were under way with major steel producers for establishing captive non-recovery type coke ovens.

FFE Minerals functions as four main business groups namely minerals technology, pyro technology, service technology and facilities performance.

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