Ennore Coke poised to grow in coke export market 

Ganesan Natarajan Whole Time Director, President & CEO, Ennore Coke Limited

production of coke has been in deficit for the  last ten years in India. This demand supply imbalance is not a current phenomenon. For example, in 2005, the demand was 26 million tones whereas the domestic supply was only 18 million tonnes. Currently, the demand for coke in the country is around 34 MT and there has been a deficit supply of 13.3 MT. India has largely been an importer of coke from China and Japan. More than 85 percent of the imported coke was of Chinese origin. But, currently, Chinese price is $ 450 FOB as against the indigenous coke price of $ 440 C&F. Also China has not exported LAM coke in the last

one year and it appears that the same situation will continue for the rest of the year as Chinese indigenous consumption of coke has drastically increased. Hence, coke is not being imported from china now. So all this opened up a box full of opportunities for the new kid on the block, Ennore Coke Limited (ECL) which seems willingly geared up to grab the opportunity and contribute in solving the persisting energy crisis plaguing India in its own way.

Mr. Ganesan Natarajan, the CEO of Ennore Coke Ltd. says -

"As the Coke Plants in Japan is not doing well, the entire focus of international coke purchase turns towards India. With the existing indigenous demand, as well as the export requirement, the next one year will be a booming period in Coke Industry in India". Currently, the ferro alloys market is rising in India, resulting in considerably good intake of coke. In fact, most of the orders generating from the eastern region has been

bagged by Ennore Coke Ltd. As per Mr. Natarajan, CEO, ECL - Ennore Coke's presence will be felt more often and ECL will be the market leader, making high quality met coke and clean power by 2010-11. Metallurgical coking coal is extensively used in iron & steel, soda ash, graphite and various chemical industries. Met Coke is also used as a filler coke for polygranular carbon products. It is the reducing agent for conversion of metallurgical ors into metal and is the chief source of heat in smelting process. The second public listed company in the domain, ECL has a metallurgical coke plant with a capacity of 1.30 Lac TPA and waste heat recovery based 12 MW power plant, in Haldia, West Bengal. Under the able guidance and leadership of Mr. Natarajan, the Haldia plant was commissioned in April 2009 and achieved a turnover of Rs.389 crore in the year 2009-10. The plant at Haldia has been designed to produce better coke oven even with inferior coal by stamp charging facility. In addition, the Company entered into several tie-ups

with running coke plants in different geographical locations like Jamshedpur, Orissa and Gujarat as contract manufacturing and expanded the production capacity of its plant from 130,000 MTPA to 330,000 MTPa.

In June 2008, Ennore Coke's associated company aqcquired Cuttack bsed Wellman Coke India, which added 0.8 lakh tone to Ennore Coke's production capacity. In late 2010, the Company took up contract manufacturing of Adithya coke (P) Ltd which added a 100,000 tonne capacity. With this ECL is getting 2.0

LTPA through conversion agreements. Accumulating this ECL's present production capacity is around 4.30 LTPA and it is progressing towards 1.0 million TPA. ECL buoyed with the export orders to Pakistan, North America, south Africa, south- East Asia and the Far East and also looking to sign MOU for long term export with big coke buy companies. Currently, ECL is exporting trough Gujarat port and would continue to do the same. With vast nascent market, ECL has adopted the FMCG marketing strategy of reaching as many places as possible, with quality coke, to tap the entire range of coke users like foundries, specialized chemical industries, soda-ash manufacturers, pipe manufacturers, chemical industries. It has planned retain operations at

nine well-spread locations to hedge risks and streamlines realization. About 35-40% of ECL's production is being sold to the blast furnaces. Due to very low PH content in ECL's products, Ferro Industries take about 40% of its production while the rest is sold to the foundries. ECL's Haldia facility, apart from direct benefits, is expected to ring about sustainable development in and around the plant encompassing the 'socio-

Economic well-being', 'Technological Well-being' and 'Environmental Well-being ' of the people concerned. ECL's vision is to offer the best of products and services on the strength of a dedicated workforce and best business practices has implemented innovative temperature enhancing method in its waste gas outlet, resulting in better quality and significant cost reduction. Moreover, it has installed a facility for blending

four types of coke at a time aimed at raising the quality of the finished product. Improvement in terms of technology, process and quality is a continuous process at Ennore Coke. Natarajan, sounded very positive when he said "We are making conscious efforts in ensuring equivalent status for stand-alone coke industry with other industries". Considered a widely-respected expert in the domain, Natarajan, a mechanical engineer by profession and a globaltrotter in his early 40s has been associated with several leading PSEs like BHEL, Vizag Steel Plant, private major like Shaw Wallace Company and a slew of home-grown and global projects, which include the projects supported by the Government of India to Maldives, the hospital project at Colombo and the temple project at Sidney. His name is well known in the industry today. He has lapped up many outstanding awards for displaying efficient entrepreneurial and public relation skills like 'Udyog Ratna

Award' for Business Excellence. His selection in the prestigious 'Who's Who International Professional Directory' is a rare feat for the CEOs of Indian Corporate World. He had been awarded with 'Pride of India Award', 'Mother Teresa Excellence Award', 'Business Leadership award' etc. etc. When in February 2009, then Prime Minister of Australia Mr. Kevin Rudd came to New Delhi, Mr. Natarajan got the opportunity to meet him and share lunch table with him. He was chosen to accompany Hon'ble Prime Minister of India

as a part of CEO's delegation to USA (White House) in November 2009. In a few months from now, he will be attending the special convocation and awarding ceremony of The 'Open International University for Complementary Medicines' , Srilanka, where he will be conferred upon the Doctor of Honours. Also, his name has been approved for 'Indian Achiever Gold Medal 2010' by NRI Welfare Society of India, in a function to be held in House of Lords, UK on 10th of September, 2010.