VSEA expresses concern over iron ore supply to VSP due to proposed ArcelorMittal & Nippon Steel plant in Anakapalli

VSEA expresses concern over iron ore supply to RINL-VSP due to proposed ArcelorMittal & Nippon Steel plant in Anakapalli.

The Visakhapatnam Steel Executive Association (VSEA) has expressed concern over the supply of iron ore to the RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (RINL-VSP) due to the proposed ArcelorMittal & Nippon Steel’s plant at Anakapalli, which is under considering stage at governments’ level.

According to VSEA general secretary K.V.D. Prasad, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has been supplying iron ore to RINL from its mines in Bailadila, for years. In fact, RINL chose these mines here because of the huge high-quality of iron ore reserves available at Bailadila. The Kothavalasa-Kirandul railway line was also specially built before independence to transport iron ore from Bailadila to Visakhapatnam port. The same railway line is the lifeline for the Vizag steel also.

“For almost three decades since 1990, all iron ore had been supplied to RINL from Bailadila. Only when severe landslides occurred on the KK line and the traffic got blocked for days, RINL looked for other sources. Here, the problem started. RINL had to get iron ore from NMDC’s Karnataka mines during times of emergency with the KK line being blocked. This led to an additional charge of ₹800 to ₹1,000 per tonne of ore being transported.

At the same time  whenever private sector plants came into the picture from 2004-05 onwards, NMDC also started supplying iron ore to them also. So, if Mittal’s plant in Anakapalle is finalised and if they also source from NMDC’s Bailadila mines, RINL will be worried about getting iron ore from Bailadila because of the extent to which private sector plants can compete with PSUs. So, we have appealed to the governments to take a note of RINL’s iron ore issue before finalising anything on Mittal’s steel plant in Anakapalli and give us an assurance of supply,” Mr. Prasad told The Hindu.

The total iron ore receipts from 2019 till October 24 from Bailadila to the Vizag steel are - 72.62 lakh tons in 2019-20, 59.80 lakh tons (2020-21), 86.80 lakh tons (2021-22), 65.82 lakh tons (2022-23), 66.29 lakh tons (2023-24), and 60.74 lakh tons (2024 april to october). A total of 647.57 lakh tons of the ore was received from the Bailadila from 2019.