Raytheon awarded $270 million for coke plant projects in U.S. and India.

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 1997--Raytheon Engineers & Constructors announced today that it has received awards worth $270 million for coke plant projects in the United States and India. The company's scope of responsibilities will include services for both the coke facilities and associated cogeneration power plants at the two sites.

The first project, worth more than $180 million to Raytheon, is for a 1.33 million tons per year coke plant at Inland Steel Company's Indiana Harbor Works steel plant in East Chicago, Ind. Raytheon will provide turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction services to Indiana Harbor Coke Company, an affiliate of Sun Company Inc.

Under a separate $29 million award at the same site, Raytheon will install 16 waste heat boilers for Primary Energy, Inc., a subsidiary of NIPSCO Industries, Inc. The boilers will generate steam by recovering the waste heat produced by the Indiana Harbor coke plant being constructed by Raytheon.

Indiana Harbor Coke Company and Primary Energy have signed agreements with Inland Steel Co., which will buy most of the coke and use the electricity produced by the plants.

The India project, worth nearly $60 million to Raytheon, is for a 675,000 tons per year coke plant for Bellary Coke & Power Ltd. at a site near Gummidi Poondi in Tamil Nadu. Raytheon will provide engineering, procurement, and construction advisory services for the coke facility and related 60 megawatt cogeneration plant.

"These projects are perfect examples of Raytheon's ability to bring a complete range of capabilities to large-scale projects," said Bhima Reddy, vice president of Metals & Mining for Raytheon Engineers & Constructors. "We can provide services that cover multiple industries, such as metals and power, as well as the technology that drives a plant," said Reddy.

Both new coke plants will use proprietary coke-making technology from Sun Coal Company, a subsidiary of Sun Company. The Sun Coal technology is environmentally cleaner and less expensive than competing processes. Raytheon is the exclusive licensor of the technology for international projects.

"Sun Coal and Raytheon have teamed to offer coke producers a complete package that includes not only technology, but also engineering and construction services," said Reddy. "Inland Steel and Bellary Coke & Power are the first to sign up for this package, and we are discussing similar projects with several other global steel producers."

The Sun Coal technology eliminates hazardous byproducts -- such as ammonia, naphtha, benzene, and sulfuric acid -- produced by older coke-producing ovens. At the same time, it gives off waste heat that can be captured to produce electricity for powering the steel and coke making operations.

Coke, which is produced from coal, is an essential raw material for the production of pig iron in blast furnaces for ultimate conversion to produce high quality steel required for automobiles, appliances, construction beams, and other uses.

Raytheon Engineers & Constructors is one of the largest engineering, construction, and operations and maintenance firms in the world. It is one of the four business segments of Raytheon Company, a $12.3 billion international high technology company that also operates in the commercial and defense electronics, aircraft, and major appliances industries.

CONTACT: Raytheon

Ed Powers, [phone]