Raw material-starved state-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) is seeking iron ore pellet producers to broaden the base of its sourcing of inputs for its 7.3 million mt per year mill in southern India, a company official said on Tuesday, February 23.
The official said that RINL has floated an expression of interest (EoI) seeking applications from pellet producers who will form part of the panel from which the steel company will source its raw materials, as the company does not have any captive iron ore mine and is largely dependent on government miner NMDC Limited for supplies of iron ore.
RINL is seeking pellet producers capable of supplying higher grade materials of Fe content above 62.5 percent with alumina content in the range of 1.5-3 percent and combined alumina and silica content of 6-8 percent.
Specific volumes to be lifted from the respective pellet producers empanelled will depend on raw material requirements and will be suitably indented periodically and through a negotiated basis.
In this context, the Indian government has recently approved 100 percent disinvestment of government equity and the full privatization of RINL, with analysts unanimously attributing the sustained losses incurred by the steelmaker to a lack of any captive source of raw material, unlike most other domestic private and government steel mills.