Bosnia’s Global Ispat Coking Industry Lukavac Signs $320 Mln in Export Contracts

“With these contracts we finally open the door to increasing our production and to launching the operations of a fourth coke oven battery in order to double production,” GIKIL Director General Jagannadham Guntupalli said in a statement.

GIKIL has two coke oven batteries with a 1.4 million tonne annual capacity. A fifth oven battery is also in operaiton with a 700,000 tonne annual capacity, according to data form the company's website (www.gikil.ba).

The contracts cover the supply of 700,000 tonnes of coke to Ispat Industries’ Dolvi complex in India and to the Serbian unit of U.S. Steel in Smederevo, the statement said.

GIKIL also said it clinched deals to import 1.1 million tonnes of high-quality coal from Australia, the U.S. and Columbia, which it will need for its operations next year.

GIKIL, based in Lukavac, in northeast Bosnia, was formed in 2003 as a 49/51 joint venture between Bosnia’s state-controlled coking plant KHK Lukavac and Ispat Group.

($=0.6690 euro)