Govt receives multiple bids for Neelachal Ispat Nigam

The public sector steel maker operates a 1.1 million ton integrated iron and steel plant located in Jajpur district in Odisha where it produces pig iron and LAM coke along with nut coke, coke breeze, crude tar, ammonium sulphate, among other things, writes ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi: The government has received multiple expression of interest for the privatisation of state-owned steel manufacturer Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), said Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary in the Department on Public Asset and Management (DIPAM) on Monday.

In a tweet, Pandey said, the transaction has now moved to the second stage as per the schedule.

The Bhubaneswar based NINL is jointly owned by the central PSU MMTC Limited and Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Orissa Limited (IPICOL) of the Odisha government and some other entities.

While MMTC owns 49.78% per cent in the steelmaker, NMDC owns 10.10%, Odisha government’s Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and IPICOL hold 20.47% and 12% respectively. BHEL and MECON each own less than 1% stake in the company.

The public sector steel maker operates a 1.1 million ton integrated iron and steel plant located in Jajpur district in Odisha where it produces pig iron and LAM coke along with nut coke, coke breeze, crude tar, ammonium sulphate, among other things.

NINL is India’s largest exporter of pig iron since 2004-05 and also supplies LAM Coke to almost all steel plants of state-owned steel giant Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) located in Vishakhapatnam.

In January last year, the cabinet has cleared the strategic disinvestment of NINL. However, the process was delayed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 global pandemic.

In January this year, the Centre invited bids for the strategic sale and the last date of submission for expression of interest (EoI) expired on Monday.

According to reports, Tata, Vedanta and Sajjan Jindal owned JSW Steel are interested in acquiring the steelmaker which has its own captive power plant and also owns captive iron mines, which is under development.

In addition to NINL, the government has also decided to privatise RINL located in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, NMDC’s iron and steel plant located in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, Ferro Scrap Nigam located in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, Alloy Steel Plant located in Durgapur, West Bengal and SAIL’s Salem Steel Plant located in Salem, Tamil Nadu.

The workers of the RINL plant situated in Vishakhapatnam have launched a mass agitation against the privatisation bid.

Mega privatisation drive

In her budget speech last month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the government’s intention to privatise most of the public sector undertakings while maintaining the bare minimum presence in four strategic sectors – (i) atomic energy, space and defence, (ii) transport and telecom, (iii) power, petroleum and minerals, and (iv) finance, banking and insurance.

Sitharaman also announced the government’s intention to privatise two public sector banks and one general insurance company in the next financial year.

The government aims to collect Rs 1.75 lakh crore from the privatisation of state-owned companies in FY 2021-22.