COVID 19 has not only rocked our world, but it has also driven home the need and importance of building a self-reliant economy in these uncertain times. And taking a cue from this clarion call is Vatsal Agarwal, founder of Simplex Coke & Refractory, which is into manufacturing and trading of MET coke. Met coke is an essential import product, and India has meagre reserves of coking coal and coke making capacity which is the reason it’s dependent on China, a dominant player in this industry.
Met coke is used mainly for the reduction of iron ore in blast furnaces. Seeing this as a good opportunity in Coke, Vatsal Agarwaal has recently signed an MOU with the Gujarat government, under ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ to set up new manufacturing capacities. India produced 106.56 million tons of crude steel in 2018-19, making it the second-largest steel producer in the world. China currently has almost 800 million tonnes steel capacity. With a rise in India’s population and infrastructure needs, steel capacities are expected to touch 300 million tons. “To achieve this target 30 MT of coke making facilities are required in addition to the existing, envisaged facilities and coke import. Presently India is importing approximately 3 to 4 MT of Coke per year.” said Mr P.K. Rath CMD of RINL.
Simplex Coke is currently the 4th largest merchant manufacturer and trader of met coke in India. Vatsal Agarwaal with a vision of taking simplex coke pan India has already managed to scale his company from a modest turnover of 4 crores to 100 crores in a span of merely 4 years with many key customers.” They have tied up with 7 coke manufacturers to build a pan India presence. Met Coke has the potential to become one of the most critical pillars of the Aatma Nirbhar (Self-Reliant India) movement, as it is an essential import substitution product” quoted Mr Agrawal. Vatsal Agarwal has recently taken over a BSE listed company, Stratmont Industries Limited.
In these unprecedented times, Vatsal Agarwal is not letting his entrepreneurial spirit simmer down and has come up with a brilliant new concept, Commodity Banks.com whereby a 100% solution is provided to any manufacturing enterprise where both ends that is inwards/raw materials and outwards/finished products both being commodities are financed by Commodity Bank. It is a bankable proposition as at any given point of time there shall be a commodity under control.
Agarwal also has an ideology of a marketplace named ‘worldofcoal.com’ where It will integrate real-time stock positions of various traders at different ports present, directly on the portal screen, such that buyers and sellers can match their price expectations as per market conditions. Simplex Coke also has a piling division which has risen to become India’s largest piling rig rental company and is executing several metro and infrastructure projects as India has a huge infrastructure budget of Rs.111 Lakh crores.
With entrepreneurs like Vatsal, making such strong strides, the future of the Met Coke industry is in safe hands.