Ramblings of Souri

Posco of South Korea, the world’s third largest steel maker and the largest stainless steel producer, has struck a 3 year charge chrome supply pact with India Charge Chrome Ltd. (ICCL), which is a unit of the Orissa based Indian Metal & Ferro Alloys. Posco has agreed to pick up around 30,000 tonnes of charge chrome every year from ICCL for its stainless steel production. The Posco-ICCL pact also has options to increase the charge chrome offtake upto 36,000 tonnes per annum. At this rate, Posco will be captively consuming over 50% of ICCL’s total rated capacity of 62000 tonnes of charge chrome and ferro chrome. The long-term agreement with ICCL came as a boon for the company which has been facing a severe financial crisis ever since its ferro chrome conversion agreement with Tata Steel ran into rough weather in the mid-nineties. Currently the company is producing at around 120% its rated capacity