The newly-commissioned blast oxygen furnace (BOF) is ramping up well. Hot metal from the blast furnace (BF) is transferred to the BOF through torpedoes. The BOF is operating at 45 minutes per batch, which will be gradually optimized to 35-40 minutes per batch. It has already touched a peak of 27 heats per day (against capacity of 36-41 at optimized rate). Crude steel production was 165kt in January, and is likely to increase to 280kt in February, with a target of 400ktpm by May 2018. By this time, the second 2.5mtpa billet caster will have commissioned. This will take told casting capacity from 3.7mtpa to 6.2mtpa and pave the way for full ramp-up of steel-making capacity. Bottlenecks will shift to rolling capacity at Angul. However, excess semis will be rolled in Patratu site in Jharkhand.