Indian government-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) aims to raise an estimated $481 million through monetization of non-priority and idle assets, a company official said on Wednesday, November 15.
The official said that the company was working on monetization of a vast tract of idle land at its 7.3 million mt per year capacity mill in the southern port town of Vishakhapatnam and a forged steel wheel making unit with a capacity of 100,000 wheels per year located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
“If the monetization exercise is completed in the current fiscal year it will enable RINL to come back to cash profit by ramping up production,” RINL chairman Atul Bhatt said.
In the fiscal year 2022-23, the steel producer notched up a loss of $361 million.
“We have a cost disadvantage of INR 6,000/mt ($72/mt) in production cost due to buying iron ore from the open market, as we do not have a captive mine, and an unsustainable debt of INR 230 billion ($2.77 billion),” Bhatt said.
“The monetization will help us reduce the debt and provide working capital for raw material purchase and reach optimal steel production levels,” he said.