SAIL may team up with RINL, MOIL to set up ferro alloy plant

Steel major SAIL may join as the third partner in RINL-MOIL joint venture for manufacturing ferro alloy as its plan for a separate unit with the manganese ore producer may not see the light of day.

State-run MOIL Ltd, formerly known as Manganese Ore India Ltd, had earlier inked two separate JV pacts with SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd to set up two ferro alloy plants with a total outlay of Rs 600 crore. Ferro alloys are used in steel-making for de-oxidising purposes.

The decision to set up the 3-way venture instead of going for two separate entities was taken at a recent meeting in the presence of Steel Secretary G Mohan Kumar, sources said.

SAIL Chairman C S Verma said however that the earlier plan of setting up a 50:50 joint venture with MOIL has not been scrapped. He admitted though that discussions were on to explore as to why a three-way venture for manufacturing of ferro alloys could not be formed.

MOIL, which proposed to have 50% stake in the two proposed ventures, is the largest producer of manganese ore in the country. The Nagpur-based firm operates 10 mines - six in Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

The Rs 400 crore SAIL-MOIL joint venture was proposed to be set up in Chhattisgarh with an annual capacity of one lakh tonnes per annum. It had even got environmental clearance.

On the other hand, the parties involved recently decided to change the original location for the Rs 200-crore RINL-MOIL JV from Vizianagaram to Vizag for manufacturing 50,000 tonnes of ferro alloys.

MOIL was to supply raw material for both the ventures.

However, nothing is clear as to where the three-way joint venture would be set up or the shareholding pattern or the capacity of the proposed entity.