NEW DELHI: After the government failed to evince interest among bidders for the strategic disinvest of Tamil Nadu-based Salem Steel Plant, a unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), the Centre has annulled the expression of interest (EoI) it had floated in 2019 and decided to scrap its sale.
“Multiple EoIs had been received and bidders were shortlisted. However, due to the lack of interest of shortlisted bidders to proceed further with the transaction, the Government of India, with the approval of Alternative Mechanism (Empowered Group of Ministers) has decided to annul the current EoI thereby terminating the present transaction,” the Government notification said.
Earlier, in 2019, the privatization of the Alloys Steels Plant (ASP) in Durgapur was halted, and in 2022, the sale of the Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISP) in Bhadravati, Karnataka, was called off due to a lack of interest from bidders.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had approved the strategic sale of these three units of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in 2018.
Reportedly, the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government had differences over the disinvestment of Salem Steel and the former had requested to facilitate investors’ visit to the property with proper security. The government aims to raise Rs 51,000 crore through disinvestment and strategic sales in the current fiscal year, but so far, only Rs 10,052 crore has been generated.
Salem Steel Plant, a special steel unit of SAIL pioneered the supply of wider-width stainless steel sheets/coils in India. The plant can produce austenitic, ferritic, martensitic & low-nickel stainless steel in the form of coils & sheets with an installed capacity of 70,000 tonnes/year in Cold Rolling Mill & 3,64,000 tonnes/year in Hot Rolling Mill.
Its steel melting shop can produce 1,80,000 tonnes of slabs per annum. In addition, the plant has the country's first top-of-the-line stainless steel blanking facility with a capacity of 3,600 tonnes/year of coin blanks & utility blanks/circles.