Astra Resources to use its steel strengthening technology to produce high margin products

Diversified mining company Astra Resources PLC (Code: 9AR), which is the UK parent company of Astra Mining, has committed to the production of high margin steel products such as ball bearing steel through its revolutionary T-Steel technology.

The premium grade steel, which includes the materials for the ball bearings, casing and rings, is used in higher than normal extreme specifications such as the aircraft industry, turbines and nuclear power plant components which demand an extremely high durability and 100% reliable product, something which Astra said the T-Steel process can produce.

Jaydeep Biswas, chief executive officer, said factories which manufacture premium category steels, equivalent to the T3 to T9 T-Steel categories, would be around 12% of the total number of mills in operation.

“Not all of these mills are able to produce the high category of the ball bearing steels, so the ratio drops down to about six to eight per cent of the total number of mills in the market.

“The DAM Steel Works in Hungary, which Astra is negotiating to acquire, is one such mill which is able to produce such high category steels.

“We are aware of the commercial advantages of our position to manufacture high-grade ball bearing and other premium category steels and plan to make it a major component of our manufacturing strategy as it commands a premium price.”

Any factory producing the high durability, long life ball bearing steels has to meet very tough technical requirements, including advanced manufacturing methods and proprietary processes in order to produce 100% fault free steels, all of which the DAM Steel Works meets.

Astra recently increased its shareholding in the technology to 45% ownership of the T-Steel Intellectual Property.

The valuation model estimates that the project of global commercialisation of T-Steel technology has an NPV of €4.47 billion, assuming that the risk level of the project is in line with the industry average.

Astra Resources global portfolio includes gold and iron sands interests in Southeast Asia, coal mines in Africa, iron ore in India, carbon efficient businesses, and the production of the high-strength T-Steel technology in Hungary.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/22521/astra-resources-to-use-its-steel-strengthening-technology-to-produce-high-margin-products-22521.html