Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd,, also known as Vizag Steel, is a public steel producer based in Visakhapatnam, India. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited is the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, India's first shore-based integrated steel plant built with state-of-the-art technology. Visakhapatnam Steel Plant is a 7.3 MTPA plant. It was commissioned in 1992 with a capacity of 3.0 MTPA of liquid steel. The company subsequently completed its capacity expansion to 6.3 MTPA in April 2015 and to 7.3 MTPA in December 2017. The company is having one subsidiary, viz. Eastern Investment Limited with 51% shareholding, which in turn is having two subsidiaries, viz. M/s Orissa Mineral Development Company Ltd and M/s Bisra Stone Lime Company Ltd. The company has a partnership in RINMOIL Ferro Alloys Private Limited and International Coal Ventures Limited in the form of Joint Ventures with 50% and 26.49% shareholding respectively. RINL, with an exclusive product mix of longs, is the largest producer of "Bars and Rods" in the country with a market share of 9.5% in 2018–19 and has recorded an annual turnover of Rs.20,844 crore in 2018–19. The products of RINL include Rebars, Wire Rods, Rounds, Structurals, Blooms & Billets, and Pig Iron and the company also markets the resultant by-products like coal chemicals and Slag. RINL products are known for its quality RINL is one of the major players in the country for Long Products having three Captive Mines and 25 Marketing Branches Pan India. Forged Wheel Plant is another unit of RINL being set up at Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh.
Location
The Steel plant is located in the southern part of Visakhapatnam city, Andhra Pradesh state of India. The company also has blast furnace grade Limestone captive mine at Jaggayyapeta, a captive mine for Dolomite at Madharam, a manganese ore captive mine at Cheepurupalli. It also has a mining lease for river sand of river Champavathi.
History
Making the Impossible possible lies in man's determination and Sri Tenneti Viswanadham and T. AMRUTHA RAO were two such personalities. The struggle of thousands of such personalities has paved a way for establishing such a big steel plant. The activities kicked off by appointing the site selection committee in June 1970 and subsequently committee report was approved for the site. In January 1971, then PM of India has laid the foundation stone. Consultants were appointed in February 1971 and feasibility reports were submitted in 1972. The first block of land was taken over in April 1974. was appointed as the consultant for preparing the detailed project report in April 1975, and in October 1977 they have submitted the report for 3.4 MTPA of liquid steel. With the government of erstwhile USSR's offer for assistance, a revised project concept was evolved. DPR for a plant capacity of 3.4 MTPA was prepared by M.s M.N.Dastur&Co in November 1980. In February 1981 contract was signed with Soviet-Union for preparation of working drawings for coke ovens, blast furnace, and sinter plant. The blast furnace foundation was laid with first mass concreting in the project in January 1982. The construction of township also started. RINL was wholly owned by the Government of India. In November 2010, the company was granted the Navratna status by the Government of India. In September 2011, the government announced plans to divest 10% of its stake in RINL via an initial public offering.
Operations
RINL operates a 7.3 million tonne per annum capacity steel plant in Visakhapatnam. During the initial periods, the company suffered huge losses. Later the profits have gone up by 200% making it the only steel industry to achieve such a target. Its annual capacity is expected to reach almost 7.5 million tonnes by 2020. RINL plans to invest to increase the capacity to 20 million tonnes by 2027. RINL has successfully commissioned its next phase despite some major setbacks with blasts in its new blast furnace. Another unit of RINL is coming in Uttar Pradesh. With an investment of 1688 Crores, RINL is establishing a plant for Rail wheels under make in India initiative. This plant will be equipped with ultra-modern technology. It will produce 1 lakh wheels per year.
