KIOCL offers pellet plant to overseas buyers under 'Make in India'

In talks with Iranian buyer for producing pellets at its plant in Mangaluru

Steel ministry undertaking KIOCL Limited has floated a novel idea to make use of its idle facilities at Mangaluru. The company is offering its pellet plant and blast furnace units to overseas companies under the ‘Make in India’ programme by using it as a tolling plant, wherein KIOCL will convert imported ore or concentrate into pellets and supply back to the customers.

Under this programme, the company has entered into a dialogue with an Iranian firm for importing iron ore, converting into pellets at its plant in Mangaluru and then exporting it back to them.

Malay Chatterjee, chairman and managing director, KIOCL said said the the company was inviting expression of interest from international firms, buyers and mine owners to bring iron ore fines to India and use KIOCL’s pellet plant for converting the ore into pellets and export the same. “KIOCL is bringing this tolling programme under the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government of India,” he said.

KIOCL operates a pellet plant with 3.5 million tonne per annum capacity and pig iron plant of 216,000 tonnes per annum at Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka. The plant is strategically located and is in close proximity to West Asian and Iranian markets where steel production is growing. KIOCL’s pellets are well-known in the international market for their quality. It produces pellets with Fe content over 66 per cent, which are of huge demand in the overseas market.

Union steel secretary Rakesh Singh and Chatterjee unveiled the company’s ‘Make in India’ policy document and brochures at Delhi on Thursday.

Under this programme, the KIOCL intends to import high grade iron ore fines from Brazil and convert it into pellets and export them to Iran. The company is also in dialogue with a Brazilian company Anglo American for importing magnetite iron ore, Chatterjee told Business Standard.

He said the company will get the pilot shipment of 67 per cent Fe iron ore from Brazil in mid-June. “For us, it is an opportunity to run our pellet plant at Mangaluru, which is now idle. We will get $25-35 per tonne tolling cost. We expect to make a revenue of Rs 250 crore by running the plant like this in a year,” Chatterjee said.

KIOCL stopped its captive mines at Kudremukh in Chikkamagalur district from January 2006 following a Supreme Court direction. Since then, it has been importing iron ore from NMDC’s mines in Chhattisgarh through rail and sea routes by paying huge cost on transportation. However, it has shut down operations currently due to high logistics cost.