Date:09/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/09/stories/2005040901590204.htm

Back NINL steel facility in Orissa

Our Bureau

BHUBANESWAR: Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), currently the largest exporter of pig iron in the country, will set up a one-million-tonne steel making facility at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa's Jajpur district.

NINL, a joint venture between Minerals and Metal Trading Corporation (MMTC) and the Orissa Government, will complete the steel project in about three years at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

The NINL Chairman, Mr S.D. Kapoor, told presspersons here on Wednesday that the facility will have bar and rod mill to produce wire rods, reinforcement bars and billets. The company is already developing a two-million-tonne capacity iron ore mine in Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts. The mine development work will be completed by December 2007.

The company is also producing power in excess of its requirement. It sold 24,000 million units of surplus power to the Grid Corporation of Orissa (Gridco) during 2004-05. The volume of surplus power will further increase when the gas turbine having combined cycle power is commissioned in a few months from now. Mr Kapoor said that the company produced 6,16,000 tonnes of hot metal, 5,52,000 tonnes of pig iron, 3,62,000 tonnes of blast furnace coke and 8,13,000 tonnes of sinter during 2004-05.