The capex by public sector enterprises under Steel Ministry dropped by over 14 per cent for the April – December period to around ₹6,043 crore and stood at 45.9 per cent of the Budget Estimate, a performance review report by the Ministry said.
The report, accessed by businessline said, for the month of December, capex by Steel CPSEs stood at ₹873 crore (approx), up 24 per cent month-on-month; but almost a third (31.9 per cent lower) of what was spent over the comparative period last year. “The capex is regularly being monitored.... and steel CPSEs are being encouraged and directed to ensure achievement of capex and expedite spending,” the report said. The performance report of the Steel Ministry (for December) was sent to the Cabinet Secretariat earlier this month.
Some of the CPSEs that come under the ministry include SAIL, RINL, NMDC, KIOCL, MOIL, among others.
The report mentions that there are nine ongoing projects by CPSEs of the Steel Ministry – six by SAIL and three by NMDC – with a project cost of ₹30,334 crore. Nearly 81 per cent of the expenditure, at ₹24,575 crore, has been incurred so far.
Production Performance
According to the report, in April–December period, SAIL — the largest steel PSU — produced 141.60 lakh tonne (lt) of hot metal (up 2.5 per cent y-o-y); 133.37 lt of crude steel (up 4.4 per cent); and saleable steel stood at 125.47 lt (0.8 per cent). Iron ore production was 247.67 lt, lower by 3.1 per cent y-o-y.
RINL’s crude steel production stood at 29.09 lt and saleable steel was at 27.22 lt, down 27.5 and 29.9 per cent, respectively.
NMDC — India’s largest iron ore merchant miner — sold 258 lakh tonne of iron ore, lower by 9 per cent y-o-y.
For the period under review, KIOCL (formerly called Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd ) reported production of 8.34 lt of pellets (iron-ore), down 39.8 per cent; while sales stood at 8.34 lakh tonne, down 39.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, manganese ore production by MOIL — a mining miniratna headquartered out of Nagpur — stood at 8.99 lt, up 4.8 per cent while the sales stood at 7.86 lt, down 5.6 per cent.