Indian state-miner NMDC Limited’s 3 million mt per annum greenfield steel mill project scheduled for completion this year has been delayed by Covid-19 and July 2021 has been set as the revised completion date, a company official informed shareholders.
The official said that, owing to the spread of the pandemic, foreign contractors engaged in the project located in Chhattisgarh state could not visit the site and hence the scheduled completion date had to be deferred until next year, NMDC chairman Sumit Deb told a virtual shareholders’ meeting.
NMDC Limited has so far invested an estimated $2.19 billion in construction of the Greenfield steel mill and would need to increase the total spending to around $2.87 billion to complete the project and bring it to commercial production.
It may be noted that, as per government directive, the board of directors of NMDC Limited has approved the demerger of the steel mill project into a separate subsidiary and partial divestment of a stake in favor of a private investor.