Chrome Silicon Ltd is an Indian industrial manufacturer that was built to supply the steel industry with ferro alloys - the additives that turn iron into steel - but its defining story is a single plant’s long struggle against the cost of electricity. Incorporated in 1981 as VBC Ferro Alloys and renamed in December 2023, the company operated one manufacturing facility at Rudraram in Telangana, a plant that was repeatedly shut down when power tariffs made production unviable and is now being sold off. The recurring approach that explains everything else is management’s conviction that an Indian ferro-alloy maker cannot compete without its own captive power source - a belief that drove the company to invest in power-generation associates and, ultimately, to exit manufacturing altogether and seek a future in chemicals and renewable energy.
Business segments
A single legacy manufacturing engine, now being dismantled, alongside two power-generation investments - one in liquidation, one proposed for merger - that represent the company’s long-running attempt to solve the power-cost problem that sank its plant.
1. Ferro alloys: the plant that power costs shut down
The company made Ferro Silicon and chrome products for steelmakers at a single Telangana plant, but without captive power it could not survive repeated electricity tariff hikes and is now selling the assets.
- One product line, one customer type - the Rudraram plant manufactured Ferro Silicon and chrome products, which are used as additives and deoxidizing agents in steelmaking; steel producers buy Ferro Silicon, while stainless-steel units use Ferro Chrome and charge chrome.
- A furnace that ran below its potential - the plant used a Russian-supplied Submerged Arc Furnace with an open-hood design that exposed mechanical components to extreme heat, causing frequent damage and repeated shutdowns that kept operations at only 60-70% of installed capacity.
- Neighbours pushed back - villagers lodged complaints with the Pollution Control Board about emissions, and rapid urbanisation around the plant brought regulatory restrictions and local resistance against polluting industry, adding to the pressures that made continued operation untenable.
2. Power-generation investments: the captive-power fix that never arrived
The company took stakes in power-generation ventures to escape grid tariffs, but one associate is in liquidation and the other is being merged into Chrome Silicon itself - a structural reset rather than an operating business.
- A gas plant that ran out of fuel - Konaseema Gas Power Limited, a 445 MW gas-based plant in which Chrome Silicon holds a 26% stake, suspended operations because domestic natural gas was unavailable as raw material, could not service its debts, and was admitted into insolvency proceedings in December 2018; it is now under liquidation after creditors rejected the resolution plan.
- A hydro-and-solar associate coming in-house - Orissa Power Consortium Limited, in which the company holds roughly 7.49%, operates a 20 MW dam-based hydroelectric project that generated 90 million units in FY25 and a 3.42 MW solar project that generated nearly 4 million units. A Scheme of Amalgamation proposes merging OPCL and VBC Renewable Energy Private Limited into Chrome Silicon, with a share exchange of two CSL shares for every nine OPCL shares, though the scheme still awaits regulatory and NCLT approvals.
- A captive-power project that stalled - the company had been developing a 120 MW captive power plant at Bodepalli in Telangana through VBC Power Company Limited, a special-purpose vehicle, but delays led the Board to explore buying into existing captive plants or sourcing power from other generators instead.
Group structure and partners
Chrome Silicon has no subsidiaries or joint ventures, but its promoter group and associate companies form a web of power and infrastructure entities, some of which carry outstanding guarantees.
- Enterprises in which key managerial personnel or their relatives have a substantial interest include VBC Exports Ltd, Techno Infratech Project (India) Pvt Ltd, BASIL Infrastructure Projects Ltd, and VBC Power Company Ltd.
- Unexpired corporate guarantees given to financial institutions and strategic investors on behalf of body corporates stood at Rs. 17,500 lakhs as of FY24, alongside bank guarantees and letters of credit of Rs. 524 lakhs.
- The Board as of March 2025 comprised six directors - one executive, one non-executive promoter, one non-executive non-promoter, and three independents - with a policy that independent directors make up at least half the Board.