Three major steel PSUs — SAIL, RINL and NMDC — have proposed a marginal 1.4 per cent cut in their capital expenditure at Rs. 12,889 crore in the next fiscal towards modernisation and expansion plans.
According to the Union Budget document, Steel Authority of India proposes to spend Rs. 7,500 crore, while Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and NMDC have earmarked Rs. 1,801 crore and Rs. 3,588 crore respectively for capital expenditure in 2015-16.
Though these three firms, under administrative control of the Steel Ministry, had proposed to spend Rs. 15,393 crore in 2014-15, these are likely to end up spending Rs. 13,077 crore, as per the revised estimate, in the current fiscal. Out of the Rs. 7,500 crore capex earmarked for the next fiscal, SAIL plans to invest Rs. 2,586 in Bhilai, Rs. 1,250 crore in Rourkela, Rs. 1,100 crore in IISCO, Burnpur, Rs. 940 crore in Bokaro and Rs. 730 crore in Durgapur.
RINL proposes to spend Rs. 1,402 crore towards capital expansion and modernisation of its line plant in Vizag to 6.3 million tonnes per annum from 3 mtpa now. State-run iron ore miner NMDC, which is building a three mtpa steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh, plans to spend a major portion of the plan outlay towards the greenfield unit.
“Balance of the plan outlay has been made for schemes/ projects like Bailadila Deposit-11B, Kumarswamy iron Ore project, pelletisation plant at Donimalai and Bacheli and R&D scheme,” the Budget document showed.
Another unit under the steel ministry, MOIL Ltd, a major producer of manganese ore, plans to spend Rs. 127.47 crore in the next fiscal compared to an estimated investment of Rs. 153 crore in the current financial year.
