Welspun now wants to shift focus back on the core business of steel and pipes rather than the big-ticket infrastructure sector.
Welspun Maxsteel, wholly owned subsidiary of the $3-billion Welspun Group, has kept its proposed steel factory plan in Maharashtra on hold due to the shortage of raw material and energy. The delay in environment clearances has also forced the company to keep the project in abeyance for now.
It is expected to take a similar stand at the Mumbai and Delhi high courts, where Welspun Maxsteel, Ispat Industries and Essar Steel have challenged the petroleum ministry's decision to divert KG-D6s supply from steel and petrochemicals to power and fertiliser.
Steel manufacturers on Wednesday hit out at 'unilateral' decision of the Oil Ministry to curb natural gas supplies from Reliance Industries' KG-D6 fields to non-core users, saying only a ministerial panel was empowered to take such decision.
Reliance Industries is ostensibly seeking a 25 per cent increase in the price of natural gas it produces from the eastern offshore Krishna-Godavari Basin after it wrote to the Oil Ministry saying it has customers willing to pay more than the government-approved price.
The petroleum ministry has said Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is not right in seeking an out-of-turn rise in the price of natural gas produced from the KG-D6 fields and asserted the $4.205 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) rate will prevail unless pricing formula is changed.
Markets ended at record closing highs for the second day in a row on institutional buying.
Few top honchos of India Inc did very well in 2014.