NMDC Nagarnar plant to be ready by Dec 2016

The project is being set up with an estimated outlay of Rs 15,525 cr

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State-owned iron ore miner NMDC Limited will complete the construction of its 3-million tonnes per annum (mtpa) integrated steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh by 2016.

“The plant is in an advanced stage of erection. The erection will be completed by December 2016,” NMDC chairman and managing director, Narendra Kothari, told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Movement for Efficiency and Transparency (MET) event held here recently by e-commerce company mjunction services limited.

The country’s largest iron-ore producer and exporter is setting up the steel plant as part of its expansion, value addition and forward integration programme. The project, coming up some 16 km from Jagdalpur, would be set up with an estimated Rs 15,525 crore outlay.

Kothari said NMDC had reserves to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore and it had embarked on an ambitious capital-expenditure programme to expand its operations. This included enhancement of iron ore production from the current level of 30 mtpa to about 70 mtpa by 2018-19, and 100 mtpa by 2021-22. A comprehensive plan was being prepared in this regard, which would be ready by May this year.

In 2015-16, he said, NMDC had targeted to produce 35 million tonnes and sell 38 million tonnes of iron ore. As much as 90 per cent of NMDC sales was through long term contracts, while 10 production was being sold in open auction.

Kothari said International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVL) would be increasing production capacity of its coal assets in Mozambique. ICVL, a joint venture of PSU majors SAIL, CIL, RINL, NMDC and NTPC, had acquired Rio Tinto’s operating coal mine in Mozambique last year.

Earlier, mjunction managing director Viresh Oberoi said the business volume of the company, a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, had soared from Rs 94.35 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 43,108 crore in 2013-14. He said mjunction, which had recently conducted the spectrum auction, presently was the world's largest e-market place for steel.