Adhunik Metaliks to invest Rs 4,220-mn in Orissa

Kolkata: Adhunik Metaliks Ltd on Thursday unveiled details of the third phase of investment at its integrated steel plant located at Kuarmunda near Rourkela in Orissa.

Nearly Rs 422 crore will be invested in various facilities, to increase the company’s profit after tax of Rs 90-96 crore in the current fiscal to Rs 176 crore in 2008-09, according to Mr Manoj Agarwal, Managing Director of Adhunik Metaliks Ltd.

Addressing newspersons after a meeting of the company’s Board of Directors, Mr Agarwal said Phase II of the project has already been implemented at an investment of Rs 437 crore.

In the process, the plant’s alloy steel and stainless steel manufacturing capacity has gone up from 2.5 lakh tonnes per annum (tpa) to 4.5 lakh tpa. The first phase of the project was earlier implemented at a capital cost of Rs 250 crore.

Mr Agarwal said the proposed investment of Rs 422 crore would comprise a debt component of Rs 274 crore and equity component of Rs 148 crore.

Phase III of the project envisages backward and forward integration projects. These include increasing sponge iron production from 1.5 lakh tpa to 3.15 lakh tonnes, even as plans have been firmed up to set up a 17 MW capacity captive power plant.

The ferro-alloy plant of 19,300 tpa capacity would be set up to augment the existing 40,000 tpa of ferro alloys that is produced. A lime calcination plant of 56,000 tpa capacity would also be set up. With the requirement of iron ore being sourced from captive mines, the company’s raw material costs is expected to down substantially. This would translate into an additional net profit of Rs 80 crore in the next fiscal, Mr Agarwal said.