Steel giants ArcelorMittal, and Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Steel are in the race to acquire the steel plant of mining major National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) in Chhattisgarh. The steel manufacturing facility located in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh has been planned for privatisation in the current financial year.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) has submitted an expression of interest (EoI) for the same. For both JSW and ArcelorMittal, acquiring the NMDC steel plant aligns to their expansion strategy in India. JSW plans to expand its capacity by 9 mln tpa in the next financial year by spending Rs 20,000 crore.

NMDC is the country's largest iron ore mining company and has spent Rs 22,000 crore in setting up the three-million tonne plant in Chhattisgarh.

The project had suffered a cost overrun of Rs 7,000 crore and later, the commissioning of the project was deferred due to land acquisition delays, pandemic-led lockdown, and dispute with the contractors.

Further, NMDC Board of Directors approved the demerger of NMDC Steel in 2022.

On December 1, 2022, the government had invited preliminary bids or EoIs for strategic sale of the steel plant.