Lloyds Metals and Energy's Rajesh Gupta | Davos WEF 2024 | NDTV Profit
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00:00 the or over 30,000 crores over a period of years of course but over 30,000 crores and the man who's done this with
00:06 With the state of Maharashtra is Mr. Rajesh Gupta
00:09 MD of Lloyd metal joins us right now on the sidelines of the WEF. Mr. Gupta. Thanks so much for taking the time out and
00:16 It's a large
00:19 Commitment large investment. What made you do this? What are the factors surrounding this? So the basic
00:27 Advice of the government of India is to reach 300 million tons and
00:31 Led by the leadership of Mr. Modi. So you we as a mining company or a
00:39 Company with a big mind. We thought it is prudent to go in that direction and
00:43 Add value added to our iron ore
00:46 So that was the basic reason of doing this
00:49 In some sense a bit of a forward integration that you've done as well
00:52 So tell us a bit about this commitment and what stages does it come in and what kind of capacities does it bring on stream?
00:58 So this is around
01:00 This is in two locations Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. Chandrapur is our original plant
01:06 that we are doing around 1.2 million tons of
01:10 steel plant backed with the pellet plant and also pipeline from the mine to the
01:17 Chandrapur plant so that would be amongst the longest pipelines that would be there number one number two
01:23 In Gadchiroli where our second plant is already commenced production in a very small scale
01:28 We are talking about a three million ton steel plant backed by
01:32 matching
01:34 Pellet capacity again and also some pellet for say commercial steel for pellets
01:38 Plus and that also backed by a pipeline from the mine to the Gadchiroli plant
01:46 Thirdly in the mine itself we have proposed
01:49 Beneficiation plant we have a very large reserve of BHQ in India BHQ is normally
01:56 Thrown away as a discard or a waste iron ore. It's 35% and the Indian iron ore
02:02 Laws say less than 45 is not iron ore. We will be we are proposed to beneficiate it
02:08 To 65% this is a technology well adopted in
02:13 China particularly and we will be adopting this technology to upgrade our iron ore and making it one of the greenest
02:19 Steel plants because of this reason. Okay, so does the entire mining capacity that you have obviously not but what percentage of the mining capacity
02:27 Therefore do you envisage gets used for the forward integration purposes?
02:32 What kind of is still remain merchant or will remain merchant so to say? Over a period
02:39 We would achieve I would say around 70 75 percent of our product would be either sold as steel or pellets and
02:47 25% of the iron ore of the expanded capacity of iron ore would be sold as iron ore. Okay
02:53 So as as the as the entrepreneur as somebody who's leading this company
02:58 Okay, then a circle but I'll jotty. So do you believe this is that game-changing a piece for you?
03:05 Yes, and yes or no and how so if you look at any
03:09 company, which is
03:12 We have been originally a steel company. There's a big
03:15 DNA of steel within us. So that's number one that we are going for this and the game changer wise it is a game changer
03:22 obviously because there is a value added and
03:25 And also we are doing all this we are trying to do all this without any debt
03:30 Yeah, so that leaves out outside any bad times or cyclical times out of the equation
03:37 So that's because of these two factors
03:39 We think it's a big change a big game changer for the company
03:43 Doesn't impact the ROEs in some fashion to do it largely equity funded with minimal debt or
03:48 Do you believe that's the way you want to go about it? That's the way we want to go about it
03:51 Okay, the other question is so the funding you saying therefore will be largely by internal accruals so to say
03:58 Yeah, okay
04:00 Let me correct, it's with zero debt largely by
04:04 Internal accruals largely by internal accruals. Otherwise some equity could be raised at some point of time
04:10 Do you envisage that happening in 2024?
04:12 Nothing, nothing being planned. Nothing being thought about at the moment. Nothing needed near term either. Nothing needed near term
04:18 So sometime post 2025 thereabouts. Let's not get into
04:23 2024. Let's not get into conjecture. All these projects have been approved by our board and
04:28 All have been well engineered and a lot of engineering activities are going on in all this. Okay, okay
04:36 So no conjectures, but one would love to understand so I have last two questions
04:39 The last one is on Davos of course and the WEF but before that, how do you see the growth trajectory of Lloyds?
04:46 With the way it is right now and with the new capacities coming on stream at some point of time in the next three
04:52 Four years. Both the
04:54 Stages are linked. So I would say around seven eight years down the line
04:58 We see a top line of around thirty five to forty thousand crore rupees. Okay
05:01 Yeah, and and what would the current numbers look like let's say in FY24?
05:05 FY24 I don't do any forward-looking statement, but
05:10 We should be touching around 12 million tons of mined product and around 350,000 tons of DRI in FY24
05:18 Okay
05:20 10 million tons in FY24 and
05:22 12 million tons in FY25. FY25. Okay, my final question as you walk the promenade
05:29 I'd met meet met people out here, etc
05:31 What is the confidence looking like for India as a growth destination if you go around the promenade?
05:37 I think 30% of the real estate is controlled by Indians whether it's four or five states all the IT companies
05:43 I'm guessing that there's a reason why we're all here is that it's is the largest growth economy
05:50 Steel for example is growing at 15% has never happened in my 30 years of experience that steel has grown at 15%
05:57 The IT companies are doing well, and I mean most of the divorce is about
06:02 IT and new age we are the exception I guess with the rule and
06:06 Yeah, so I think there's a lot of confidence in India by everybody. Well, it clearly shows in the way you've announced your project. So
06:13 Congratulations on that and thank you so much for speaking to us here on NDTV profit and all the best with your plans
06:19 And viewers, thanks for tuning in
06:22 You
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