Indian iron ore pellet producer KIOCL Limited (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited) is planning to take the joint venture route to set up iron ore pelletization plants across India and move out of its present operational hinterland of Karnataka in southern India, a company source said on Tuesday, December 4.
The source said that KIOCL is planning to construct three iron ore pelletization plants of 2 million mt per year capacity each at Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Bhilai in Chhattisgarh and Bokaro in Jharkhand.
The Vishakhapatnam pellet plant will be constructed in a joint venture with state-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), while KIOCL will partner state-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) to build the other two pellet plants at Bokaro and Bhilai, where the latter operates two of its steel mills, the source added.
The joint venture with RINL has been scheduled for completion by 2021-22, while the projects with SAIL are expected to be operational tentatively around 2023 and the final timeline will be set once KIOCL and SAIL have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for implementing the project, the source said.