Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL), a public sector steel maker promoted jointly by MMTC Ltd and two Odisha government-controlled companies, has logged its best-ever monthly output for hot metal during December.
In the month of December alone, NINL rolled out 85090 tonnes of hot metal, its highest monthly output ever. Buoyed by the capital repair work on its blast furnace, NINL posted its best ever Q3 production of 0.53 million tonnes in hot metal. At 0.36 mt, its half-yearly hot metal output went past the previous highs.
With the growth in production, rolling out of value-added product- steel billets, conversion of part of billets into TMT, wire rods and mining from its captive iron ore asset, the company aims to turn net profit in the next fiscal. NINL, the country’s leading pig iron producer cum exporter, runs a 1.1 mt steel plant at Duburi inside the Kalinganagar industrial complex, touted as Odisha’s steel hub.
“The production growth is most significant for the turnaround of the company. The next target is the production of value-added billets, conversion of part of the billets into TMT, wire rod and operation of the captive mines towards the start of the next fiscal which will strengthen the company’s bottom-line”, said S S Mohanty, vice chairman & managing director at NINL.
The steel PSU post a successful blast furnace capital repair running into over four months clocked operating profit during the April-August period of this fiscal. The steelmaker turned Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) positive, recovering dramatically from its Ebitda negative status in FY18.
In calendar 2018, NINL successfully completed the capital repair work on its blast furnace and started billets production from its Steel Melting Shop (SMS). It aims to commence mining from its captive iron ore block at Roida from the next financial year. Selection of a Mine Developer cum Operator (MDO) is underway for the mine.
MMTC is the biggest equity participant in NINL with a shareholding of 49.9 percent. The Odisha government’s ownership in the steel PSU is through two of its undertakings- Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol).
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