Second Blast Furnace Shut Down, Major Crisis in VSP

Visakhapatnam: The steel plant of RINL is facing a serious crisis with the second blast furnace Annapurna blowed down on Thursday. Sources said the raw material stocks were dwindling with no help coming from the government.

With the existing lone blast furnace, the production has come down to 5,000 tons per day. All the three blast furnaces produced 21,000 tons of steel per day

It may be recalled that the blast furnace -1 Godavari was shut down in May this year and Annapurna was blowed down on Thursday. Only blast furnace -2 Krishna is operational.

`It was shut down for strategic reasons to prevent damage to the blast furnace,’’ an official requesting anonymity told this correspondent.

The steel plant union leaders, alarmed over the current situation, called for a maha dharna at Gajuwaka on September 15.

Senior trade union leader Varasala Srinivasa Rao said Annapurna was shut down at 4pm on Thursday.

``The Krishna furnace will run for only three days as the coal stocks fell to 30,000 tons,’’ Srinivasa Rao said.

He said Annapurna was shut down for two years from November first week in 2021.

``It will take three months to restart the furnace,’’ he added.