PPL turns around, posts Rs 12.7 crore profit for the first time

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 22: It’s a story of successful disinvestment of a perennially loss-making fertiliser unit. Leading fertiliser manufacturer Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL), sold by the Union government in 2002 to a private company, has finally made a turnaround by posting a profit of Rs 12.7 crore in 2005-06, after decades of losses.According to PPL managing director S.S. Nandur Dikar the company, which has its DAP fertiliser plant in Paradeep, 120 km from here, had been running losses since it was set up in 1983 as a government of India undertaking and later in joint venture with Nauru government. As part of disinvestment exercise by the NDA government, the PPL, the second largest producer of phosphatic fertilisers was sold in 2002 to Zuari Maroc Phosphates Private Limited, a joint venture of the K.K. Birla Group and fertiliser giant OCP Group of Morocco. In 2005-06, it came out of the red for the first time, Mr Nandur Dikar added saying that PPL has been able to produce 12.58 lakh tonnes of DAP and complex fertilizers during 2005-06 as against 10.21 lakh tons in the preceding year registering an increase of 23 per cent.Total sales of Rs 1971.3 crores in the year against Rs. 1595 crore in the previous year registered an increase of 23.6 per cent.PPL holds the number one or two position in market share in most primary market areas. PPL products sell in 16 states. During the year sales touched a new high of 14.40 lakh tonnes comprising of 12.68 lakh tons of PPL's own produced fertilizers and the balance of 1.72 lakh tonnes of MOP.

“Discriminatory” policy forces NBFAL to shut down its Orissa plant

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 12: Even as the Orissa government tries to woo more and more mineral based industries in the state by promising captive mines lease to them, India’s largest ferro alloy producers, Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys Limited (NBFAL), has shut down its one lakh-tonne ferro alloys plant near Meramundali in the undivided Dhenkanal district.The reason for the closure, according to sources, is the company's lack of access to chrome ore, abundantly available in Orissa. However, the company has not yet laid off some 350 direct workers, but anytime could terminate the services of its employees on the roll, the sources added.Some 1000 contract workers already have lost their livelihood.The NBFAL had set up the Meramundali unit, nearly 150 kilometer from here, in 1995 at a cost of Rs 200 crore and so far sustained an accumulated loss of Rs 70 crore as it had to source chromites from the market while its competitors, like, Facor, Imfa, Iccl, Ispat Alloys, Jindal Steel Limited, Tata Steel were sitting pretty with captive mines to feed their ferro/charge chrome plants in the state and elsewhere in the country.Ironically, the NBFAL is the only ferro alloy unit in the state without a single captive mine for the last six years. The state government has been following a policy to give priority to lease out mines to the value added industries to meet their 50 per cent requirement, but the continuing discrimination to the NBFAL in the allotment of mining lease has baffled experts.NBFAL almost had the mine for its captive consumption in mid-2001.However, some strange problems dogged it from the execution of the mining lease in its favour. The state government, way back on 28 January 1999, had recommended the central government to grant NBFAL an area of 84 hectares to meet its 50 per cent captive requirement for fifty years in line with the historic Supreme Court verdict for granting captive chromites mining lease to ferro alloy producers. The union mining ministry had also endorsed the state government's recommendations on 9 July 2001. The company had accepted all the terms and conditions for the lease deed and accordingly deposited a treasury challan on 18 August 2001 at Jajpur Road.But the leading ferro alloy producer got broiled in the litany of litigations and politicking. Interestingly, all along, an Orissa based industrial house which has considerable influence in the ruling Biju Janata Dal headed by chief minister Navin Patnaik, had tried to block the lease to NBFAL through litigations, bureaucratic manipulations and political pressures, documents reveal.Meanwhile, Dhenknal Sadar MLA Sudhir Kumar Samal has written a letter to chief minister Navin Patnaik urging him to intervene and stop the discriminatory treatment to the industry.“The state government should immediately put an end to the discriminatory treatment to this industry and a lease deed may be executed immediately in line with the policy already adopted for similar industries in the state,” Mr Samal has said in the letter.

Mittal steel plant will be port-based, Balasore likely the plant site

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 9: Mittal Steel’s proposed 12-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa is most likely to be port-based and located in Orissa’s Balasore district.
According to sources the company is zeroing in on Kasaphal area near Balasore as the place has got good road and railway links.
Besides, what has weighed in favour of Balasore district is its strategic proximity to neighbouring West Bengal and mineral rich state of Jharkhand.
A five-member team comprising chief secretary Subhas Pani, mines secretary L.N. Gupta, chief minister Navin Patnaik’s principal secretary Bijay Pattanaik, Mittal Steel chief operating officer Malay Mukherjee and India project head Sanak Mishra is being contemplated to be formed to finalise the plant site after with the memorandum of understanding will be signed.
Meanwhile, this paper has got some information on how the state government officers managed to spell a charm on the steel tycoon L.N. Mittal during his meeting with the chief minister Navin Patnaik.
Sources said Mr Mittal’s team was supposed to make a presentation before the chief minister Navin Patnaik. However, a few hours before his arrival in Bhubaneswar, a message came from Mr Mittal’s office reached the CMO that the state government should make the presentation.
The entire bureaucracy was taken aback by such message. However, the Orissa team led by chief secretary Subhas Pani held to its nerve and worked over night. The team finally managed to prepare a 25-page powerpoint presentation which completed “charmed” and “impressed” Mr Mittal.
“I am impressed with the presentation by the Orissa government team. I visited a number of states in China and other countries as well, who made presentations to us. I have often wondered why we can't do the same in India. Today, I was thrilled when Orissa received me in the same manner, Mr Mittal remarked on Friday after the presentation.
The 70-minute power-point presentation had successfully taken Mr Mittal and his team through the state's resource base, infrastructure, competitive advantages in a globalised scenario, human resources and investment scenario.
The 70-minute presentation justified Orissa as the most preferred destination as it has one-third of the country's iron reserve, one-fourth of coal deposits, 98-9 per cent of chromite mines, 63 per cent of bauxite and other minerals.
The state has surplus water and abundant low-cost, quality power, adequate land with 480-km long coastal line, a major port at Paradip and two new ports coming up at Dhamara and Gopalpur, proposed national gas grid in coastal Orissa and, above all, an attractive investment climate with single window and team Orissa facilitation.
The presentation argued that Orissa had a competitive advantage over other states as it boasted of plants with low-cost steel/alumina. It quoted McKinsey as saying: “Orissa's economy is poised to grow at 7.1 per cent over the next 10-12 years, the highest in eastern India.”
Mr Mittal said with the kind resource base the state has, the growth rate should be higher than other Indian states. “Economic growth of Orissa should be more than 8 per cent,” he reportedly said.
“We tried to give a realistic picture of the development of the state's steel sector. Fifteen projects have started production and 10 more projects are progressing fast. We have signed MoUs for six mega projects with a capacity of 36 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and a total investment of Rs 1,08,586 crore and 37 MoUs with non-mega steel projects with a capacity of 21.94 mtpa with a total investment outlay of Rs 28,570 crore,” an official told this paper.
The chief secretary, who made the presentation, said Mittal Steel is open to several locations. Mr Mittal, who prefers the port based steel project, was shown a map identifying 10 port sites besides Paradip port and Dhamra and Gopalpur ports, which are being developed.
At the end of the presentation, L.N. Mittal’s son Aditya Mittal is understood to have offered Orissa necessary support for ancillary and downstream industries in the state. Mittal Steel has 100 service industries located in Europe.

Kalam’s heart feels for children in distress

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, July 4: President of India A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s heart seems to be really bleeding for the children in distress. He thinks for them and tries to do whatever possible.On Monday, the president, while inaugurating the Bhubaneswar Eye Institute here, Mr Kalam remembered a newspaper story on the plight of a scholar student of Balasore –based Fakir Mohan College and asked the doctors to see that the boy’s eye problem is taken care of.Master J. Sonal, son a bank officer, secured 10th rank in the annual Class 12 state examination this year despite having an eye disorder that prevents him from studying for more than two hours a day. He managed to secure 780 out of 800 marks in the arts stream.Sonal cannot study more than two hours a day because of pigment problems in his both eyes, which doctors say cannot be cured. His father Asim Jena says if Sonal studies more than two hours, he suffers from irritation and his eyes start watering. So, he used to study continuously for half-an-hour with regular intervals.Speaking about his success, Sonal said he used to give more importance to class room teaching. “I attend all the classes and stay alert while absorbing lectures,” the boy was quoted as saying soon after the examinations results were out. Sonal’s father is worried that there is no remedy for the defect in his eyes. He has consulted doctors in Hyderabad and Chennai, but to no avail.“Sonal's father while being happy to see the extraordinary performance of his son in spite of pigment problems in both his eyes is a worried person. Sonal suffers from irritation and his eyes start watering, if he studies continuously for more than twenty minutes and two hours a day. However, he concentrated on his studies when he sat down to read and was extremely attentive in his class. He could not study science because of the eye disorder. I am sure the doctors of Bhubaneswar Eye Institute will take this challenge and find a cure for the pigment problem experienced by Master Sonal. The financial support required for the treatment can be arranged. This treatment may definitely be helpful to many other patients having similar problems across the country,” the president said.A few months ago, Kalam had sent some money for the two children of a couple in Kendrapara district of Orissa who died of AIDS.In yet another case, the President – responding to an e-mail of a poor student of Batatoda village of Kendrapara district who wanted to study a professional course - had asked the State Bank of India authorities to provide him a loan.