Public sector miner NMDC Ltd may turn its over Rs 15,500 crore steelmaking project in Chhattisgarh into a joint venture with state-owned metal producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd.
Government sources told Business Line that the board of NMDC was likely to consider the proposal shortly. Business Line query to NMDC Chairman C.S. Verma remained unanswered. However, a company source confirmed that the next board meeting in December would take up the subject formally.
“After NMDC board takes a view on the issue, RINL board also would consider the proposal,” an RINL official said. RINL CMD A.K. Chowdhury declined to comment.
Sources in the Union Steel Ministry said that on a Finance Ministry’s suggestion, a broad proposal has been prepared for the upcoming three million tonnes a year steel project at Nagarnar in Bastar district.
The Ministry is understood to have suggested that NMDC would have the majority stake in the proposed joint venture. “The Nagarnar project economics would determine the future course of the proposal for collaboration,” said a Ministry source.
Sources also clarified that NMDC’s another three mt a year steel project in Karnataka was not a part of the current proposal.
After a Finance Ministry suggestion for a “desirable” collaboration between NMDC and RINL, the Steel Ministry is learnt to have taken the idea forward in the past couple of months. The Steel Ministry representatives are on the board of both the PSEs.
RINL, which at present is carrying out a 3.3-mt a year expansion project, does not have an operational captive iron ore source and obtains the key raw material from NMDC.