The Indian government plans to sell a stake of about 10% from the state-owned Manganese Ore (India) Ltd as part of the government’s drive to sell steel-related state assets. Manganese Ore is the nation’s largest manganese producer and meets about 65% of the domestic needs. The company, meanwhile, has plans to ramp up its ferro-manganese production capacity. On the flip side, the company’s finance director has warned that the company’s profits at the end of the current fiscal is likely to show a drop of about 22% because of the lower steel demand last year.
On the manganese-mining front, steel giant ArcelorMittal (MT) is going through a rough phase. The company has faced stiff opposition from the local residents of the mineral-rich state of Jharkhand as it tries to implement the manganese and iron ore mining rights awarded by the government in January 2009. Consequently, the company’s plans to set up a 12 million tonnes per year integrated steel plant have not seen the light of day yet. In fact, the company has had to announce a change in the project site.
The Indian Space Research Organization is funding a $37.5 million, 500 tonnes per year titanium sponge plant in the southern state of Kerala. Titanium dioxide will be used as the raw material for the plant and at present, India’s Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is in the final stages of separating the magnesium from titanium dioxide to ensure that the plant rakes in some money. This will give a slight boost to the nation’s magnesium production as well.
India’s automobile sector is going through the roof. Auto sales reached record highs over the last year or so and if the government has its way, the trend is set to continue over the next six years. The Automotive Mission Plan for the 2006–16 period aims to turn India into a global automotive hub that will manufacture automobiles and auto components. The plan aims to achieve a production capacity worth close to $133 billion. Good news indeed for the steel industry and consequently, the manganese and molybdenum industry.
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