ROURKELA: Normalcy was restored in Blast Furnace -V (BF-V) of Rourkela Steel Plant a few hours after hot metal production stopped in the blast furnace due to bursting of the Blow Pipe -23 on Sunday. RSP facilitated a short duration shutdown before restoring normalcy by the evening.In a statement on Monday, RSP claimed that need-based short duration shutdowns are normal during any month to rectify problems arising due to continuous operation.
The shutdown in BF-V at 6.00 am on Sunday was needed to replace the damaged blow pipe of the tuyer which was detected during the routine inspection of the furnace. The furnace was restarted after 10 hours and normalcy was restored soon after. There was no production loss or any financial implication.
During this period, the Old Plate Mill was already continuing under a shutdown, while the New Plate Mill performed at above 75 percent of rated capacity to produce 2006 tonnes of plates.
The statement claimed that in the current month ,the BF-V is operating close to its capacity and till Sunday, the BF-V has produced 1.68 lakh tonnes of hot metal.After bursting of the blow pipe at about 4 am on Sunday, a section of the trade unions had claimed that the air pressure and volume to the BF-V were reduced to zero to avoid major complications and the BF-V was fully stopped. They said production was restored after 12 hours and the BF-V could produce about 3,200 tonnes of hot metal against the daily average of 8,000 tonnes to incur combined production loss of about `15 crore.