NMDC ltd—the country’s largest iron ore producer and exporter will be constructing a set of buildings for setting up of the Central Research & Control laboratory (CRCl) at the proposed 3.0 MTPA Integrated Steel Plant site at Nagarnar near Jagdalpur in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
Notably, the Union Steel and Mines Ministry has plans of doubling installed capacity of NMDC ltd’s upcoming 3 MTPA integrated steel plant coming up at Nagarnar in due course, once the plant is commissioned.
The company is expecting commercial production of its 3 MTPA capacity steel plant in Chhattisgarh to commence by the middle of 2017. The plant is expected to be ready by December 2016 and trial of same will start by December 2016 itself, officials stated.
In order to increase the domestic capacity of steel production, a concept of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been introduced, officials stated.
Two MoUs have already been signed by the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for setting up Greenfield steel plants with initial capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) each to be later enhanced to 6 MTPA. More than `70,000 crore will be invested for setting up of these steel plants.
Notably, India was the only country among the major steel producing nations of the world which recorded a positive trend in steel production and consumption in 2015, officials stated.
The first 11 months of 2015, steel production vis a vis 2014, India showed a growth of 2.8 %, and world steel production registered decrease of 2.8 %. India’s steel production capacity has increased by 6 % in 2015 and consumption has increased by around 5 %.
Moreover, NMDC recorded iron ore production (provisional ) of 5.91 million tonnes (MT) from its mines in Chhattisgarh as on August 31, 2015.
The company informed this to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in its filing recently while offering details on production and sales of iron ore (provisional) upto the month of August this year from its mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.
NMDC from its mines in Karnataka recorded iron ore production of 4.61 million tonnes during the aforesaid period. The total iron ore production from the company’s mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka during the aforesaid period stood at 10.52 million tonnes, it informed the BSE.