The Hindu Business Line : IMFA Group's expansion likely next year

THE first phase of the Rs 600-crore expansion project of the Orissa-based IMFA Group is slated to go on stream in June 2005 with the commissioning of a 24-MVA furnace, work on which has just begun. The first phase envisages an investment of Rs 50 crore.

According to company sources, the expansion project is spread over three phases with the third phase scheduled to be commissioned in the fiscal 2009-10. While the first phase envisages the setting up of a 24-MVA furnace, the second phase involves the setting up of another 24-MVA furnace and a 120-MW power plant at an investment of Rs 50 crore and Rs 400 crore, respectively. The third phase of the project envisages the setting up of a 48-MVA furnace at an investment of Rs 100 crore.

The funds required were being raised through lease financing from a private sector lease finance company. The expansion project is being set up at a land adjacent to the company's existing plant at Choudwar near Cuttack.

The sources said financial closure for the first phase has already been achieved and orders worth Rs 15 crore have been placed. M.N. Dastur and company has been awarded the contract for the project's detailed engineering. Decisions pertaining to the financial closure of the second phase of the project would be taken soon.

At present, the IMFA Group is India's largest producer of ferro alloys and comprises Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys and Indian Charge Chrome Ltd. The Group has a 130-MVA installed furnace capacity backed up by a 108-MW captive power plant.

The Group has its own chrome mines and has an installed capacity to produce 1,70,000 tonnes of ferro chrome per annum. When complete, its ferro chrome production capacity would go up to 3,00,000 tonnes per annum.

The sources said the expansion project had been taken up keeping in view the resurgence in the ferro chrome industry following strong demand from markets in Asia. The domestic demand for ferro alloys, too, is on the upswing with increased demand for steel by infrastructure and construction projects.

The Orissa Government is stated to be upbeat about the project since the value-addition would take place within the State, according to the sources.