Chairman-Cum-Managing Director, NMDC N. Baijendra Kumar said that the progress of construction of the company’s steel plant in Chhattisgarh is noticeable and construction is at completion stage.
This 3 MTPA capacity integrated steel plant is expected to be operational by third quarter of FY’2020-21. Kumar was addressing company’s shareholders during 61st Annual General Meeting at Hyderabad on Saturday.
A senior IAS of Chhattisgarh cadre, Kumar said that the year 2019 has been a vital year for global iron ore trade in terms of demand and supply scenario and volatility in iron ore prices. India is the 4th largest producer of Iron ore after Australia, Brazil and China producing about 210 MT of Iron ore in FY 2018-19.
The NMDC is India’s single largest iron ore producer (32.4 MT in FY 18-19) with a market share of 24% in merchant mining and 15% in total India’s production (including captive) for FY 18-19.
He said that to meet the growing requirement of iron ore by the Indian Steel Industry, the NMDC has made plans to increase its production capacity to 67 million tonnes per annum. The strategy is to focus on growth largely through brown field expansion of existing mines and improving evacuation along with it. Development of green- field mines are planned through joint venture with the Chhattisgarh State Mineral Development Corporation, this will add capacity of 10 MTPA in next 4-5 years.
According to Kumar, the company aspires to broaden its product portfolio in order to meet the needs of the nation as well as to broad-base its operations. ]
Company is in the process of making detailed exploration and setting up of a pilot-scale processing plant for gold in its mining lease in Tanzania.
In spite of all challenges, NMDC has recorded excellent performance in the first quarter of this financial year that witnessed a spectacular growth both in physical and financial performances. Iron ore production in Q1 is 8.43 MT against 6.98 MT in Q1 of 2018-19, registering a growth of 21%. Similarly, iron ore sales has increased from 6.78 MT in Q1 of 2018-19 to 8.67 MT in Q1 of 2019-20, witnessing a growth of 28%. This is the best ever performance since inception for Q1 (excluding Donimalai which was non-operational in Q1 FY 20).
The sales turnover for the Q1 of 2019-20 is Rs 3,264 crore which is 35% higher than the CPLY which was Rs 2,422 crore. In absolute terms, this is the best result in last 5 years and if revenues from Donimalai are excluded, this is the best ever turnover for Q1 since inception.
On CSR front, the NMDC has spent Rs 167.24 Crore in the Financial Year 2018-19, which constitutes 3.44 % of average PBT for the preceding three years. This signifies the NMDC’s solemn commitment to its stakeholders, he added.
The NMDC has joined hands with other Steel Companies under the leadership of the Ministry of Steel in taking up various healthcare and hygiene oriented developmental initiatives in Nuh (Mewat) District Haryana, one of the 115 Aspirational Districts in the Country, identified by NITI Aayog.
Besides this, NMDC has come to the aid of Kerala by agreeing to assist in the reconstruction of two Primary Health Centers destroyed in the catastrophic Aug 2018 floods and extended an amount of Rs 10 crores for the disaster relief and rehabilitation work in Karnataka recently.