NMDC awards Rs 760 cr order to consortium

Iron ore miner NMDC Ltd today said it has awarded a Rs 760 crore order to a consortium of four firms, including Siemens VAI, for turnkey execution of a sinter plant complex for its proposed Nagarnar steel making facility.

The state-run company will set up a three million tonne per annum integrated steel making facility at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh with an investment of about Rs 15,000 crore.

"This is the first contract amongst the nine main technological packages for the three MTPA integrated steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh and the cost of the project is about Rs 760 crore," NMDC said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Sinter is a clinker like aggregate normally produced from relatively coarser fine iron ore. This is a highly preferred input in blast furnaces. It improves the operation of blast furnace operation, productivity and reduces coke consumption.

At present, more than 70% of hot metal in the world and 50% in India are produced through sinter.

NMDC said it has signed a contract agreement on March 3 with a consortium comprising Siemens VAI, Austria, SVAI India and NCC Ltd on that.

Company Chairman Rana Som had last month said that the plant is likely to go on stream by 2014.

Apart from Chhattisgarh, NMDC has in joint venture with Russia's Severstal plans to set up a 2-mtpa steel plant in Karnataka. Work on the project is likely to start next year.

It is also in talks with Tata Steel to ink an equal joint venture for setting up a 2-mtpa steel plant at Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

The Navratna firm has the production capacity of about 30 MT iron ore per annum from its three fully mechanised mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.