RINL keeps doors open for non-bidders as well

- VSP’s financial liability at Rs22,000 cr

- It’s India’s first shore-based steel plant with 7.3 MT capacity

- It’s unable to operate at the rated capacity

- The 3rd blast furnace shut for want of raw material

- It has a long-time arrangement with NMDC to source iron ore

- RINL management confident of safeguarding the interest of the company

- VSP’s land bank has 20,000 acres

- Visakha Ukku Porata Parirakshana Committee still has hope that it’ll not be privatized

Visakhapatnam: For partnering with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), for funding working capital or supplying raw materials, the March 27 notification seeking Expression of Interest (EoI), which ended on April 20, is not restricted only to the bidders.

When contacted, a senior official of RINL told Bizz Buzz on Monday that the management had the discretion to reject anyone or allow non-bidders to take part in the tendering process. He said RINL will see what best it can do to safeguard the interest of the company thereby helping it to overcome the present crisis.

VSP is India’s first shore-based integrated steel plant with a capacity of 7.3 million tonne (MT). The company is unable to operate at the rated capacity as it has shut down the third blast furnace for want of raw material. Iron ore and coal are the main raw materials of the company, which has a long time arrangement with NMDC to source iron ore from its Bailadilla mines in Chattisgarh. The company’s financial liabilities in view of heavy capital investments have gone up to Rs22,000 crore.

Though the company has a land bank of 20,000 odd acres, it is unable to monetise part of it to meet working capital crunch due to legal problems as the most of the land is still in the name of the President of India. Part of the land is either allotted or acquired by the Andhra Pradesh Government thereby making it a prerequisite to obtain prior approval of the State. RINL has a 100 per cent shareholding in RINL.

“The doors of RINL for partnering with the Navratna company are still open to NMDC, SAIL or Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) though they did not submit bids in response to the EoI notification issued by the RINL management,” Visakha Ukku Porata Parirakshana Committee chairman D Adinarayana told Bizz Buzz. He said they still have the hope that the Centre will explore other means to prevent privatisation.

The coal available with SCCL will be useful only for the thermal power plant of RINL. In EoI, RINL stated that in lieu of working capital support or raw material supply, they will be giving finished products from VSP. However, in response to the EoI, the company received bids from JSW and JSPL and several overseas companies mostly operating from Ukraine and other countries.

Meanwhile, a committee set up by the management has launched an exercise to scrutinise the bid documents. The committee consists of BK Mohanty, Chief General Manager (Works), Murali Babu, General Manager (Materials Management), V Santha Kumar, CGM (Finance), M Satyanandam, CGM (Marketing) and V Srinivas, GM (CSM).

The doors of RINL are still open to NMDC, SAIL or Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) though they did not submit bids in response to the EoI notification issued by the management

- D Adinarayana, Chairman, Visakha Ukku Porata Parirakshana Committee, tells Bizz Buzz