Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (MIDHANI) is India’s strategic factory for the metals that go into fighter jets, space rockets, nuclear submarines and the soldier’s bulletproof vest - it makes the high-performance alloys the country cannot buy off the shelf. Born in 1973 under the Ministry of Defence to end import dependence in critical materials, the Hyderabad-based enterprise has spent five decades building one of the few fully integrated specialty-metals plants of its kind in the world. The recurring approach that explains everything else is indigenisation: developing and manufacturing customised alloys tailor-made for a specific critical application, then moving up the value chain from raw mill forms into finished components - armour, fasteners, aero-engine parts - so that each new capability is built on the metallurgical platform of the one before. # Business segments A single integrated metallurgy platform feeding three distinct product engines - specialty alloys and mill products as the core, armour systems for the soldier, and precision aerospace components for the next-generation fighter and space programme - all spun from the same melting furnaces in Hyderabad. ## 1. Specialty alloys and mill products: the mother platform **Every other product MIDHANI sells begins as molten metal in its Hyderabad melt shops, where the company makes titanium alloys, superalloys and special steels that almost nobody else in India can produce.** - **The only titanium alloy maker in India** - MIDHANI is the country’s sole manufacturer of titanium alloys and one of its leading producers of special steels and superalloys, supplying them as forged bars, rings, sheets, strips, wires, tubes and fasteners. - **Melting capability is the moat** - the plant runs a full suite of vacuum-based melting furnaces (VIM, VAR, ESR, Electron Beam) that no other Indian facility possesses, and these are essential because the alloys require special processing that competitors generally lack. - **A mill that rolls what others cannot** - the Rs. 500 Crore Wide Plate Mill can roll ultra-high-strength steel and superalloy plates up to 2.5 metres wide and as thin as 4 mm, eliminating the machining step needed on thinner plates everywhere else in India and giving MIDHANI a cost edge. - **Raw-material vulnerability turned into a structured hedge** - the company is totally dependent on imported nickel, cobalt, molybdenum and other costly inputs, so it has signed an MOU to create a “metal bank” for six critical raw materials and has modified its processes to consume more internally generated scrap, saving roughly Rs. 40-43 crores in a single year. - **R&D as the import-substitution engine** - over 25 new grades were developed in FY25 alone, including single-crystal blade material for aero engines and indigenised master alloys for titanium melting, while AI-driven simulations now monitor melt quality in real time. ## 2. Armour products: protection from the soldier to the helicopter **At its dedicated Rohtak plant, MIDHANI turns its armour-grade steel and advanced composite materials into bulletproof jackets, vehicle armour and sentry posts for India’s defence and police forces.** - **Lightweight protection as the signature** - the ‘MIDHANI Kavach’ bullet-resistant jacket uses ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fabric layers, and the company’s nano-material plant is established at its Rohtak armour manufacturing unit. - **A full armour factory under one roof** - the 10-acre Rohtak facility houses water-jet and plasma cutting, autoclaves, composite moulding presses and ballistic presses, making everything from personal patka head protection to helicopter armouring and passenger-vehicle armour. - **Supplied to the forces that fight** - products have been delivered to the Indian Air Force, Greyhounds, Telangana Police, Assam Police, J&K Police and ordnance factories, and the Hyderabad plant even supplied 90 tonnes of armour-grade steel for the presidential dais on Republic Day 2026. ## 3. Aerospace components and fasteners: moving up the value chain **MIDHANI is no longer just a metal supplier to aerospace programmes - it now makes the finished precision parts, from aero-engine rings to the fasteners that hold a fighter jet together.** - **Fasteners for the Tejas and beyond** - a Rs. 40 Crore world-class facility now produces superalloy, titanium and special-steel fasteners covering the entire process from head forging to finishing, targeting the domestic aerospace market for programmes like LCA-Tejas and HAL repair and maintenance. - **The world’s second-largest isothermal forge press** - the 6000-tonne isothermal forging facility, integrated with the existing open-die press, manufactures closed-die titanium and nickel-alloy components for critical aero-engine parts and is the highest-capacity such press under India’s Ministry of Defence. - **Single-crystal blades: the pinnacle of metallurgy** - MIDHANI developed cast superalloy single-crystal blade material for the hottest sections of aero engines, with extreme compositional tolerances, and it passed customer tests for the first time, marking entry into the highest tier of global competitiveness. - **Beyond aerospace** - the company also produces helical compression springs for railway wagons and coaches (60,000 per year capacity), supplied 31 titanium windows for the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in India’s first architectural use of titanium, and is setting up a metal powder unit for additive manufacturing. # Group structure and partners **MIDHANI is a standalone Government of India enterprise with two joint ventures that extend its metallurgical mandate into aluminium alloys and defence testing infrastructure.** - **Utkarsha Aluminium Dhatu Nigam Ltd** - a 50:50 joint venture with NALCO, incorporated in 2019, to build a high-end aluminium alloy plant on 110 acres at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, with an estimated project cost of Rs. 4,500 Crore; commercial operations had not yet begun as of FY25. - **Advanced Materials (Defence) Testing Foundation** - a not-for-profit Section 8 company formed in 2024 under the Ministry of Defence’s testing infrastructure scheme, with MIDHANI as the lead member alongside HAL, Bharat Dynamics, Yantra India and PTC Industries, each holding 20%, along with Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development; it is building a mechanical and material testing facility in Lucknow with 75% government grant funding and MIDHANI’s investment at roughly Rs. 3 Crore. - **No subsidiaries** - the company operates directly, with a small equity stake in AP Gas Power Corporation Limited held only as a security deposit for uninterrupted power supply, and a 50% stake in joint venture Utkarsha Aluminium Dhatu Nigam Limited.