Two state-owned steel makers, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), have expressed their interest to work with NMDC as a joint venture partner in the proposed steel project at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh.
NMDC, which had invited expression of interests (EoI) in February from global steel companies for a joint venture partnership for its three-million-ton-per-annum (mtpa) project, has offered its prospective partners a 49% equity in the project without management control. However, it is likely to invite a fresh round of EoI soon offering a bigger equity stake or even management control. “We got just two applications in response to the EoI that we had issued in February. We want wider participation for the steel project from across the world. Hence, we will issue a fresh EoI and hike the equity offer,” an NMDC official said.
Industry experts opine that NMDC should have learnt from the two separate steel-making joint ventures that SAIL and NMDC had thought of earlier involving South Korean Posco and Russia’s third-largest steel manufacturer Severstal, respectively, where even a 50% equity offer did not break the ice. Neither of the projects took off due to tussle over the management control.
This time, however, the option of offering the chance to one of the two PSUs is also under consideration, sources said. Final call on the partnership issue would be taken by the company board at its meeting in the first week of May, they added.
