State-run manganese producer MOIL today said it was setting up two plants of manganese alloy products, one each with Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) through joint venture route, for about Rs 600 crore.
Both the units will produce processed products -- silco-manganese and ferro-manganese-- and are being set up in an equal partnership with the other state-run firms SAIL and RINL, company Chairman KJ Singh said.
The unit with SAIL will be established near the Bhilai steel plant in Chhattisgarh for Rs 400 crore and produce about 1,06,000 tonnes of the manganese alloys per annum, he said.
Moreover, the unit with RINL will come up at Bobli, near Vishakhapattnam in Andhra Pradesh for Rs 200 crore and would have a production capacity of 57,000 tonnes in a year, he added.
He further said that "both the units are being set up in equal partnership [with SAIL and RINL] and are expected to be commissioned by 2013-14."
All the investment will be met equally by the joint ventures partners, Singh said, adding that MOIL will meet its contribution of Rs 300 crore from the internal cash reserves of the company.
As on March 31, 2011, the company had a total cash reserves of about Rs 2,000 crore.
Besides this, the ongoing expansion of company's capacity, through which the Nagpur-based company aims to have a total production capacity of 2 million tonne by 2020, is on time, Singh said.
The company is investing about Rs 1,200 crore to augment its capacity by increasing the output at Balaghat underground mine in Madhya Pradesh and Dongri Buzurg open cast mine in Maharashtra to 5 lakh tonne each.
In 2010-11, MOIL produced about 1.15 million tonnes of manganese from its seven underground (Kandri, Munsar, Beldongri, Gumgaon, Chikla, Balaghat and Ukwa mines) and three opencast mines (Dongri Buzurg, Sitapatore/Sukli, and Tirodi that are estimated to have total reserves of 60 million tonne.
Formerly known as Manganese Ore India, the company is biggest domestic producer of manganese ore, primarily used to make ferro-alloys for steel production.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2011, the company had posted a net profit of Rs 108.94 crore, while its net income was Rs 210.08 crore.
Shares of the company, which was listed on the bourses last December, today closed at Rs 274.35 a piece on the BSE, down 2.28% from its previous close.
