Indian government-owned iron ore miner NMDC Limited will seek a partner from the private sector for its three million mt per year greenfield steel mill currently under construction in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, government sources said on Thursday, April 14.
The government sources said that NMDC will bring in a private partner in the early stages of commercial production and this will mean that the government’s earlier plans of NMDC disinvesting its equity in the project will be scrapped.
“There are a number of global steel companies currently bidding for stressed steel assets in India that are under the bankruptcy resolution process. Both NMDC and the government are sure that these companies keen to mark their presence in the Indian market will also be interested in partnering NMDC through equity investments in a project with a clean balance sheet,” the sources added.
An Indian parliamentary committee has set NMDC a deadline of October 2018 to commence production at the $2.76 billion steel mill, which has missed several deadlines for the start of production, the last being December 2017 and is currently suffering a 41-month time overrun.