KIOCL plans to ramp up pellet capacity 4-fold.

Public sector steel company Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) plans to ramp up its pellet capacity four times from the present 3.5 million tonnes (mt) to 14 mt, through a series of joint ventures with other central and state public sector units in Karnataka, Seemandhra and Odisha.

The company, which now operates only one pellet plant at Mangalore, has tied up with National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) for operation and maintenance (O&M) of latter's 1.2 mt pellet plant coming up at Donimalai in Karnakata. The Rs. 900-crore plant will be operational by August this year and the arrangement with KIOCL to run the unit has been approved by the NMDC board last week, says Malay Chatterjee, CMD, KIOCL.

Similarly, the Bangalore-based resource company intends to enter into a joint venture (JV) with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) soon for setting up a 1.2-mt pellet plant at Rourkela with an estimated cost of Rs. 1,200 crore.


BS