AM/NS bulks up for the future

After buying out Essar Steel's assets in 2019, the JV is focusing on acquisitions to secure infra, expand into value-added products

- ISHITA AYAN DUTT

The entry of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) into India's league table for steel was noisy, with the world's largest steelmaker locked in an intense legal battle with the Ruias, promoters of Essar Steel, for more than two years to gain control of the company under India's nascent insolvency law.

Three years on, the 60:40 joint venture of the world's leading steelmakers is bulking up by acquiring a string of assets connected to its operations and ring-fencing future expansion.

Nearly ₹90,000 crore worth of capital expenditure has been incurred so far on various asset acquisitions and projects, with a major investment of about ₹42,000 crore on the acquisition of Essar Steel, Amit Harlalka, deputy chief financial officer, AM/NS India, said. "Additional investments were made to secure strategic infrastructure assets (port and power), a slurry pipeline, and downstream value added products in order to make AM/NS India operations self-reliant," he added.

The infrastructure assets were not part of Essar Steel's insolvency resolution process but allied and critical to AM/NS India's operations.

The Odisha Slurry Pipeline (OSPIL), for instance, owns a 253-km pipeline connecting AM/NS India's iron ore beneficiation plant in Dabuna with the pellet plant in Paradip, Odisha, and the Supreme Court recently approved a resolution plan submitted by ArcelorMittal India Pvt Ltd as part of an insolvency resolution process.

Then, the power assets included a 500-Mw captive gasbased power plant at Hazira, acquired from secured creditors.

A 60-Mw thermal power plant located in Paradip was acquired under the SARFAESI Act, a debt recovery law, to meet power requirements of operations there.