Central India Chhattisgarh based integrated steel plant Shree Nakoda Ispat Limited started its business only 14 years ago, but today the company’s name has become one of the most leading high-quality rebar manufacturing brand in the region. The company in less than two decades has expanded its business operations all across the country.

Presently, the company has Sponge iron producing capacity of 1,71,000 MTPA, Steel melting shop capacity 1,20,000 MTPA and Rolling mill (TMT bars) with the production capacity of 1,15,000 MTPA. Besides this, the company also has Ferro alloys Submerged electric arc furnace with 13,200 MTPA capacity and Captive power plant with production capacity of 26 MW.

In a face to face interview with Steel360, Director of the Nakoda group Sanjay Goel said “Nakoda group have a superior approach, positive and planned growth in strength and quality”. He added that ‘the second generation of the family has become part of Nakoda group. His nephews Vikram Goel and Manish Goel and son Sparsh Goel have already stepped into the business who are going be the impetus for the company.

Excerpts of the interview

Q. Elaborate more about your state of the art TMT technology that is imported from Belgium?

A. The technology is called the TEMPCORE process, deriving its name from the actual treatment where the peripheral martensitic layer gets TEMPered by the heat left inside the austenitic CORE of the bar after finishing of the quenching stage. It is essentially a Quench & Self Temper (QST) process.

As the bars exit the final stand of the rolling mill, it passes through a special water-cooled arrangement. The bars get quenched/hardened (quenching time depending on the thickness of martensite layer to be formed), developing a temperature gradient within the bar causing the heat to flow from the center to the surface, resulting in self-tempering of martensite.

The reinforced bars manufactured through TEMPCORE have high yield strength, excellent weldability, and superior ductility as opposed to conventional processes.

Q. What is the situation of procurement of raw material in Chhattisgarh?

A. Raw material availability in Chhattisgarh has never been an area of concern owing to its location. It is in close proximity to NMDC mines providing good quality iron-ore and Coal India’s subsidiary giving best quality steam coal. Though, procurement sometimes becomes tough due to railway rake availability. Many factors such as seasonal changes, demand, prices attribute to rake accessibility. Procurement of NMDC ore to CG based units has been falling considerably from last few months due to hike in prices (majorly, post-suspension of iron ore mining operations at few mines in Odisha over illegal mining).

Q. How do you see the demand for steel in Chhattisgarh? What are your observations on recent trends in demand?

A. I am extremely optimistic about the steel demand scenario in Chhattisgarh in line with Government’s thrust for Infrastructure development. In contrast to other states, Chhattisgarh is a comparatively new state amidst extensive forest land; construction is on a high demand for government infrastructure (particularly affordable housing) in addition to private sector scaling up. There has been a substantial increase in real estate (smart city) and railways among other demand areas.

Chhattisgarh additionally benefits due to its low cost of production in comparison to others, due to its nearness to key raw materials and its central location. Owing to this, the finish products prices are lower in comparison to other states making Chhattisgarh a competitive state among others and enabling it to supply products across India.

Regarding recent trends in demand, falling Chinese imports internationally has caused the biggest impact. This has led to increased exports from India to various SAARC countries in the past couple of years, making India a key central exporter within the Asian continent.

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