Cronimet Acquires Indian Smelter

Cronimet Mining GmbH, a Cronimet Group company headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, and investors from Dubai have acquired 70.5 percent of the shares of GMR Ferro Alloys and Industries Ltd. from the Indian GMR Group. The remaining 29.5 percent of the shares are widely held. Antitrust authorities have already approved the deal.

GMR Ferro Alloys is an important player in the Indian market in the area of   ferrochromium production and will operate in the future under the name Cronimet Ferro Alloys (India) Ltd. The company is headquartered in Tekkali Mandal in the Andhra Pradesh state.

Founded in 1989 and certified in accordance with ISO 9001-2000, the company operates a ferrochromium melting plant. The plant includes two melting furnaces with a capacity of 6 MVA (megavolt ampere) and 9 MVA and has more than 230 employees.

The melting plant produces approximately 27,500 tons of ferrochromium annually. Seventy-five percent of the plant’s output is exported to Europe, China, Japan and Korea.

With this acquisition, the Cronimet Group continues its vertical integration, investing in the expansion of the value-added chain in the area of raw material supplies with ferro-alloys for the stainless steel industry.

Under the leadership of the majority owner Cronimet Mining GmbH, a consortium of German and South-African companies invested in the mining rights for a significant chromium ore deposit in South Africa in April of this year.