By May, public sector iron ore mining company National Mineral Development Corporation will unveil a roadmap it will pursue to achieve an ambitious three-fold increase in capacity, to 100 million tonne, over seven years.
A cash-rich enterprise under the Union Ministry of Steel, it has commissioned a consultant for preparing the comprehensive vision plan and pursuing diversification into production of steel, coal and potash fertilizer, some of them through foreign joint ventures.
Chairman and Managing Director Narendra Kothari said the plan, whose milestones include 65-75 MT iron ore capacity by 2018-19 and 100 MT by 2021-22, is aimed at consolidating the position by going for new mines. He was speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of Movement for Efficiency and Transparency, an event organised here by Kolkata-based mjunction Services Ltd.
On the performance MoU signed earlier this week with Steel Ministry for 2015-16, he said NMDC was targeting 35 MT production and 38 MT sales. It will close the current fiscal with a performance better than in 2013-14 (30 MT), Mr. Kothari said. Hudhud cyclone, which affected production for a month, and the night restrictions in Bailadila, Chhattisgarh weighed on the 2014-15 performance.
Cash reserves
To queries, he said the company had cash reserves of over Rs. 20,000 crore and setting up a 3 MT steel plant in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh. Of the Rs.15,500 crore investment proposed on the plant, Rs. 6,000 crore has already gone into the facility which would be erected and ready for commissioning by December next year.
NMDC, Mr. Kothari said, had signed an MoU with Akron of Russia to acquire a stake in a potash mine in that country. “We are looking at fertilizer mineral potash,” he said, adding the entire demand was now imported by the country. The company was also part of International Coal Ventures Ltd, a joint venture involving many PSUs that acquired coal assets in Mozambique.
mjunction, according to its managing director Viresh Oberoi, is a joint venture of Tata Steel and Sail and offers a range of e-services, including selling, sourcing, financing besides running the largest e-marketplace for steel. The company recently conducted the spectrum sale.
Public sector company to complete erecting 3 million tonne steel plant in Chhattisgarh by December 2016
