NINL:Stakeholders agree to infuse Rs 800 crore captial to keep steel plant alive

New Delhi: The fate of Nilachal Ispat Nigam Ltd.(NINL), an Odisha-based steel plant, started looking up, though temporarily, as the share holders decided to chip in working capital to keep the plant in running condition.

At a high-level meeting, chaired by uion commerce and industries minister, Piyush Goyal and attended by union steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Odisha steel & mines minister Prafulla Mallik, held here on Thursday late evening, the stake holders of NINL agreed to bring to infuse the required Rs 800 crore capital with a view to run the plant till the disinvestment process of NINL is over.

While the Central-sector MMTC Ltd. holds 49.9% stakes, the Odisha government concern Odisha Mining Corporation(OMC) and the Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation (Ipicol) between them have 26% stakes in NINL. The remaining equity are with CPSEs like NMDC Ltd, BHEL Ltd and Mecon Ltd besides financial institutions.

The MMTC Ltd., the majority stake holders of NINL has filed with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on June 27 2019 informing its intent to divest equity in the loss making steel company. The Odisha government owned concerns OMC and Ipicol too are eager to pull out of the loss making unit.

NINL, which is operating a 1.1 million tonne steel plant in Kalinganagar Industrial Complex at Dubri in Odisha, has started looking up with the successful completion of the blast furnace capital repair work in April 2018. It has also diversified into billets and TMT bar production to shore up margins.

But due to lack of working capital, the plant is now facing closure. The MMTC Ltd. has stopped infusing money on the plea that it has already filed for disinvestment with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Attempts by the State government also failed to hand over the plant to Central sector steel company SAIL .

However, the Thursday decision would certainly give a new lease of life to the plant.

The high-level meeting was attended by Odisha steel & mines additional chief secretary RK Sharma, MMTC CMD Ved Prakash and Ipicol MD Nitin Bhanu Jawale.