Indian Express reported that Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited has proposed to set up a steel plant, pelletization mill and a mining beneficiation unit in Odisha at an estimated investment of about INR 2,500 crore.

In a proposal submitted to the union steel secretary Mr DRS Chaudhary on June 22, RINL CMD Mr AP Choudhary said that his company would set up a 100,000 tonne plant to be ramped up to 300,000 tonne, 4 million tonne pelletization unit, and a 4 million tonne to 6 million tonne iron ore processing plant.

The company has asked the steel ministry to facilitate setting up of these units and has asked the state government to give quality mines for the enterprise.

This comes at a time when there is a perception of an impending gloom building up in the domestic steel industry.

He suggested that once iron ore mines are allocated to the PSU, pellets would be would be converted into billets at the Vizag plant, which would be again brought back to Orissa for conversion into finished steel in the proposed plant.

RINL has expressed its readiness to commission a study to identify the product mix and configuration of the steel plant based on market findings and to assess its techno economic feasibility.

Mr Choudhary said the funding pattern of the required CAPEX will be based on the debt equity ratio of 1:1 and the estimated annual turnover from the sales works out to INR 425 crore. Conceding that the annual rate of return may be lower than what steel plants consider viable (around 15%).

Source - Indian Express

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