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India’s largest steel PSU, the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), will look at importing wagon wheels as the steel sector tries to overcome the problem of railway rake shortage for transporting key ingredients like coal.
In-principle approval has been granted to the CPSE which will now look at getting into agreements with international suppliers, as Rail Wheel Factory is not able to spare wheel sets for external customers, Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, told businessline. “Discussions with suppliers and price negotiations will begin soon,” he said.
Data available from the Ministry show that against an average daily demand of 105 rakes per day, the shortfall was 36 rakes a day in December. In January, the shortfall came down to 28 rakes per day (demand remaining similar); and stood at 24 rakes a day in February.
The country’s steel mills have been complaining about the non-availability of wagons for transporting iron ore and coal, even as Railways prioritise supplies to the power sector.
Improving numbers
According to Sinha, the shortfall in rake supplied to the steel sector has come down over the last three months (December to February), with the Railways ramping up.
“We took up the issue with the Railways and pointed out to them the average daily rakes required for steel mills and the shortfall in numbers. However, an issue that is cropping up is the availability of wheels for the rakes. The Railways are unable to get the specified wheels in the required numbers. So this is where SAIL said it could explore imports and an in-principle approval has been given,” he said.
- Also read: Indian Railways gets 3 bids to set up manufacturing facility to supply 80,000 wheels per annum
Forged wheel availability
The average requirement of forged wheels in India is 1,20,000 of which the existing domestic manufacturing capacity for SAIL is 40,000; whereas for RINL it is 80,000. The latter is yet to start regular commercial production. This demand is likely to go up over time.
The Railways have been importing various types of forged wheels since the 1960s from the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Brazil, Romani, Japan, China, Ukraine, and Russia.
The current import bill (for procuring forged wheels) is pegged at ₹520 crore approximately for 80,000 wheels, mostly sourced from China.
Railway wheel making
Indian Railways had recently received three bids — from SAIL, Bharat Forge, Pune, and Ramakrishna Forgings, Kolkata — to build a forged wheel manufacturing facility with an annual supply of 80,000 wheels of various types for the next 20 years.
Ramakrishna Forgings is the L1 bidder having quoted a price of ₹1,88,100 per tonne; followed by Bharat Forge at ₹2,75,000 per tonne; and SAIL being L3 at ₹2,89,500 per tonne.
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