Public sector steel major SAIL is out of the race for acquiring stake in IDCOL’s loss making iron and ferro chrome units, following the failure of its talks with the Odisha government.
“The state government has rejected SAIL’s conditions for acquiring the IDCOL Kalinga Iron Works (IKIWL) and IDCOL Ferro Chrome Alloys (IFCAL). So, the central PSU is not in the race to acquire the two units”, said Odisha industries minister Devi Prasad Mishra in the Odisha legislative assembly.
Last year, SAIL had signed an MoU with IDCOL and had taken an initiative to evaluate assets of the plant and subsequently prepared an investment plan aimed at better utilization of land and resources of both IFCAL and IKIWL. It was decided that SAIL was to acquire 100% stake of IKIWL and 51% stake of IFCAL. However, even after one year of the MoU, no significant progress has been seen in the plan owing to the conditions imposed by SAIL.
The public sector steel major has demanded that Odisha government should bear salary expenses of all employees of the two units for next 3 years and transfer the land free of cost. SAIL also wants chrome ore from the Odisha government at INR 2,000/MT (whereas, the current market price of high grade +54 friable chrome ore is around INR 12,000-13,000/MT).
With SAIL out of the race, there are another 4 PSUs namely NALCO, NMDC, KIOCL and RINL competing to acquire the state PSUs. Meanwhile, according to sources, KIOCL is ahead of others in the race.
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