India steelmaker Tata Steel Limited will need to invest $126 million to restart its newly acquired steel mill of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) within the next three months, a company official said on Friday, August 5.
Tata Steel through its subsidiary, Tata Steel Long Products Limited (TSLPL), completed the acquisition of the assets of NINL on July 4 this year through the government privatization process and half of the capital expenditure required to restart the operation of the closed mill will be spent in the current fiscal year.
In the second phase, Tata Steel will commit a further investment to ramp up the capacity of NINL from 1.5 million mt per year to 5 million mt per year.
“We hope to start the blast furnace in three months and other facilities in subsequent months. The biggest problem is the coke ovens which should not be shut down without taking precautions. Unfortunately, this was not done two years ago when NINL was shut down. It will take at least six months to revive all facilities,” Tata Steel CEO T. V. Narendran said.