Even as NMDC’s iron ore sales declined 5.5% to stand at 28.84 MT in 2015-16 over the previous fiscal, the state-run firm targets to produce 35 MT of the steel-making raw material in the current fiscal and aims to produce 50 MT by 2018-19 and 67 MT by 2021-22.
NMDC, a PSU without a regular head for the last six months, plans to produce 23 MT at Kirandul and Bacheli mines in Chhattisgarh and the maximum permissible (as per restrictions imposed by Supreme Court) 12 MT from Donimalai mine in Karnataka in the current fiscal.
Regular production from its 7 MT Kumarasway iron ore mine in the southern state, being developed with an investment of R899 crore, is slated to start next month, the company said in a presentation to the newly-inducted steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh last week.
NMDC’s production fell short of 0.04 MT from its mines in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal compared to the actual target of at 7.67 MT even as its output from the Donimalai mine exceeded target by 0.14 MT to 2.78 MT.
The company sells its Chhattisgarh minerals mostly through long-term arrangements, but it has to sell its Karnataka produce through the auction route as per the directive of the Supreme Court. Barring JSW Steel, none of its major customers like Essar Steel and RINL are in good shape now.
Hit by a decline in sales and lower net sales realisation, turnover and profit after tax of the company also nearly halved to R6,456 crore and R12,356 crore respectively in the last fiscal.
