[Ferro-Alloys.com]There is no shortage of ferrochrome plants up for sale. India’s Jindal is the latest. The Indian stainless steel and ferrochrome producer has hired Ernst & Young to help find a strategic partner to spin off its ferrochrome assets into a separate company (Project Blue Jay). Jindal’s ferrochrome assets include 2X60 MVA and 3X27.6 MVA submerged arc furnaces producing about 250,000 mtpy (60% Cr, 2-4% Si, 6-8% C, 0.05% P and 0.05% S). The 3X27.6-MVA furnaces have been configured to also produce high-carbon ferromanganese, high- and medium- and low-carbon silicomanganese if required. The package also contained a 66.5-mtph briquetting facility and a waste heat recovery system at the 60-MVA furnace to produce steam for the 14-MW power plant. Included in the deal is a long-term ferrochrome offtake agreement with Jindal’s stainless plant, with a significant portion of that material sold in liquid form. In addition, there will be an assured power supply from the parent company’s 264-MW captive thermal power plants, including a 33-KVA substation dedicated to the ferrochrome smelter. The total load for the ferrochrome plant is 100 MW, The company imports lumpy chrome ore and uses domestic friable ore. Consumption norms to produce 1 mt of ferrochrome is 2.5 mt of chrome ore, 0.55 mt of LAM coke, 0.2 mt of quartzite, 0.05 mt of magnesite and around 3,500 kWh of power. Earlier, DCM DecoMetal tried to sell a strategic interest in its Albanian Chrome venture but eventually sold the entire operation to a group of Albanian investors; the price paid was rumored to be between $3- and $5-million. DCM DecoMetal retained marketing rights for both the ferrochrome and chrome ore. The Albanian smelters, however, were not directly tied to a stainless mill. Mechel is in the second round of trying to find a buyer for its ferrochrome smelter and chrome mine. The Russian company reportedly has the operations on its books for $1.5-billion, but no one is willing to pay anywhere near that level. “The major asset is the mine, not the smelter, and even the mine is suspect,” one potential buyer said. “In the end, Mechel might have to keep it.”
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