Ban on use of coking coal shrinks Agra foundries
Vishal Sharma
New Delhi/ Agra. Before the revised pollution control directives put the Agra diesel generator manufacturing industry off its track, the foundry industry of this town ranked among the country’s largest assemblies of metal casting industrial units, generating business of over Rs 6,000 crores.
According to the Agra District Industrial Centre officials, there were 226 iron foundries and about 340 metal casting units functioning in Agra in the decade of 1990-2000.
However, after the use of coking coal in the blast furnaces, utilised by these units, was banned by the Central Pollution Control Board, the foundry and metal-casting industry faced a serious setback and the number of industrial units reduced drastically.
Amar Mittal, Chairman, Agra Iron Founders Association, said, “Despite being more than 100 years old, the Agra metal-casting and foundry industry had not yet received exposure in the global market.”
According to Mittal, availability of cheap labour and good quality of metal casting were attracting a lot of American and European companies to Agra’s foundry industry and the region was gradually becoming an outsourcing location for labour intensive casting operations.
“But,” he said, “over the last few years the ban on the use of coking coal in the furnaces had resulted in significant loss of business to the local industrialists and as a result a lot of metal casting units had begun developing their own gas-based cupola or induction furnaces. However, these furnaces functioned well only when used with SG iron, a new variant of the gray iron, most commonly used in the Agra metal casting units.”
He said that considering the better strength and lighter weight of SG iron and the fact that it worked well with induction and cupola furnaces, a lot of industrial units were slowly phasing out the use of gray iron while also incorporating major infrastructural changes.
The Atul Group of Companies, which was one of the largest metal-casting suppliers for the Indian Railways, had recently begun the moulding of alloy steel while Diwan Chand Suraj Prakash Industries had developed its own laboratory for testing of induction metal castings for structural defects.
Mittal said that the Agra-based India Casting Industries was one of the few local foundry units that had been able to procure foreign supply orders but that could only happen when the company completely transformed its infrastructure to suit the requirements of its foreign suppliers.
According to the Agra District Industrial Centre officials, there were 226 iron foundries and about 340 metal casting units functioning in Agra in the decade of 1990-2000.
However, after the use of coking coal in the blast furnaces, utilised by these units, was banned by the Central Pollution Control Board, the foundry and metal-casting industry faced a serious setback and the number of industrial units reduced drastically.
Amar Mittal, Chairman, Agra Iron Founders Association, said, “Despite being more than 100 years old, the Agra metal-casting and foundry industry had not yet received exposure in the global market.”
According to Mittal, availability of cheap labour and good quality of metal casting were attracting a lot of American and European companies to Agra’s foundry industry and the region was gradually becoming an outsourcing location for labour intensive casting operations.
“But,” he said, “over the last few years the ban on the use of coking coal in the furnaces had resulted in significant loss of business to the local industrialists and as a result a lot of metal casting units had begun developing their own gas-based cupola or induction furnaces. However, these furnaces functioned well only when used with SG iron, a new variant of the gray iron, most commonly used in the Agra metal casting units.”
He said that considering the better strength and lighter weight of SG iron and the fact that it worked well with induction and cupola furnaces, a lot of industrial units were slowly phasing out the use of gray iron while also incorporating major infrastructural changes.
The Atul Group of Companies, which was one of the largest metal-casting suppliers for the Indian Railways, had recently begun the moulding of alloy steel while Diwan Chand Suraj Prakash Industries had developed its own laboratory for testing of induction metal castings for structural defects.
Mittal said that the Agra-based India Casting Industries was one of the few local foundry units that had been able to procure foreign supply orders but that could only happen when the company completely transformed its infrastructure to suit the requirements of its foreign suppliers.
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