Ispat Iscor Ltd. has obtained approval from South African environmental authorities to commence construction of a new coke oven battery at its Newcastle steel plant in northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. This will enable the company to expand its market coke production by some 450,000 tonnes per year.

Ispat Iscor’s head of Coke & Chemicals, Andries Joubert said the additional market coke would be supplied to the domestic ferroalloy industry, making the sector virtually self-sufficient of imported market coke.

The South African ferroalloy industry’s total market coke demand is one million tonnes per annum, of which Ispat Iscor, at present, supplies some 400,000 tonnes, which it produces at its Pretoria- and Vanderbijlpark-based coke batteries. The ferroalloy industry’s additional requirements are sourced offshore, mainly from China.

Joubert said several by-products would also become available as a result of the market coke expansion program. “The battery will produce some 4 million GJ per annum of coke oven gas for in-plant consumption and approximately 24,000 tonnes of crude coal tar yearly, which will be refined at the company’s tar refinery into mainly binder pitches for the aluminum industry in Southern Africa.”

The expansion project, estimated at R450 million, entails the construction of new materials handling infrastructure for coal and coke, demolition and complete rebuild of a decommissioned coke oven battery, and a major upgrade of the gas cleaning plant at the Newcastle steel works. The new gas plant will have sufficient capacity to clean all the coke oven gas generated at Newcastle.

Joubert confirmed that while the main contract for construction of the coke oven battery and gas plant has been awarded to Chinese industrial consortium CITIC-ACRE, which offered the best technological and financial solution for the project, some 34% of the expansion program will be undertaken by South African companies.

“The new battery and adjacent gas plant will be constructed using modern, state of the art technology, to ensure consistently high product quality. This will also ensure the coke oven battery complies with all applicable environmental legislation and standards,” said Joubert.

Preparation of the site at Newcastle is already underway and construction will be completed by mid-2006, with coke production commencing during the second half of the same year. During construction, emphasis will be placed on technology transfer as an important focus area to ensure greater self-sufficiency in future. After commissioning, approximately 70 permanent jobs will be created for day-to-day operations and maintenance of the new facilities.

Ispat Iscor Coke & Chemicals sources the majority of its coking coal requirements from Kumba Resource’s Grootegeluk coal mine. Kumba recently announced that they have commenced with a R320 million project to expand capacity to supply the additional coking coal requirements for the coke oven battery project.

“Expanding our coke capacity will enable us to double sales to the ferroalloy industry, in turn, reducing the sector’s dependence on imported coke, while allowing Ispat Iscor to maintain its position as the leading Southern African market coke supplier and contributing significantly to the company’s bottom line earnings,” said Joubert.

Ispat Iscor Ltd. is a subsidiary of international steel conglomerate Mittal Steel Co. NV.