Indian government-owned company Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani), a producer of special grade alloy steel for defense equipment manufacturing is looking at overseas joint ventures to source critical raw materials and cut down dependency on Chinese imports, a government official said on Wednesday, June 27.
For example, Midhani in conjunction with state-owned iron ore miner NMDC Limited is looking to acquire an equity stake in a tungsten mine in Vietnam, to be able to source tungsten for domestic manufacture of alloys required for defense equipment manufacturing, the official said.
Midhani will also focus on securing overseas sources for key inputs like nickel and cobalt, apart from tungsten.
Although a major supplier of special steel, super alloys and titanium alloys for defense production, Midhani is hamstrung by domestic non-availability of critical inputs and hence is heavily dependent on sourcing raw materials from China, the official said.
Being a relatively small producer of special grade alloy steel by internationals standards, Chinese suppliers are able to dictate prices of raw materials and hence Midhani is seeking to pick up equity stakes in raw material sources overseas in collaboration with other Indian government-owned mineral processing companies, the official added.