India’s ministry of steel is considering handing over the forged steel wheel manufacturing unit of government-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), government sources said on Thursday, October 26.
In September this year, RINL had sought bidders to operate its 100,000 unit per year capacity forged steel wheel unit located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The sources said that, with both RINL and SAIL under the administrative control of the ministry of steel, transfer of the forged steel unit from one steel company to the other was considered a more viable option that the complete privatization of the wheel manufacturing plant.
Government officials declining to be identified and industry circles understand this to be a cue that the government is likely to abandon plans for the complete privatization of RINL’s main 7.3 million mt per year capacity steel mill located in the southern port town of Vishakhapatnam. This has been reinforced by the recent decision by the government not to go ahead with the privatization of the 3 million mt per year steel mill constructed by state-run miner NMDC Limited through its arm NMDC Steel Limited.
Government circles privately claim that privatization of NMDC Steel Limited was abandoned because of opposition from the Chhattisgarh government, where the project was located, with the state heading into elections later this year.
Similarly, with opposition to the privatization of RINL snowballing and finding support from political parties, the government is also likely to abandon its plans considering that national elections in India are scheduled next year and privatization is still a sensitive issue during poll time.
