Report on the operations of low shaft furnace pilot plant at the National Metallurgical Laboratory for the production of foundry pig irons with raw materials from Maharashtra State

Owing to meagre known reserves of coking coals in India in relation to rich and classical iron ore resources, production of pig iron employing non-coking coals is both a metallurgical and national necessity. As such, establishment of small iron-making plants in suitable parts of India offer much desired decentralization of the industry, exploitation of regional raw materials’ resources of the country and thereby relieve the transport load on the railways in more than one way apart from the elimination of transport subsidy payable by the Government of India for the application of a uniform selling price of pig iron all over India. Such production of foundry grades of pig iron will satisfy the regional requirements of iron foundries and will permit a more economically interwoven industrial structure. Modest regional demands of foundry pig iron cannot warrant the installation of highly capitalized and mechanized modern blast furnaces with output of 1000-1500 tonnes/day.