Sarda Energy & Minerals began in 1979 by acquiring a sick wire-drawing unit, and over five decades transformed that small operation into an integrated industrial platform where the output of one business becomes the raw material of another. The company now spans captive coal and iron ore mines, thermal and hydro power plants, and steel and ferro alloy factories, all feeding each other in what management calls a “self-feeding ecosystem”. That recurring approach - own the raw material, generate your own power, and process it all under one roof - is what turns a set of commodity businesses into a low-cost producer that can sell at any stage of the value chain. # Business segments Five engines at different stages - a legacy metals business, a ferro alloys export franchise, a captive-minerals backbone, and a hydro annuity book, all now dwarfed by a newly acquired thermal power giant that has reshaped the company. ## 1. Energy: the new centre of gravity **The acquisition of a 600 MW thermal power plant and the ramp-up of hydro assets have turned energy into the dominant earnings engine, contributing two-thirds of consolidated EBITDA and transforming SEML from a metals company into an energy-and-minerals platform.** - **A bought-and-integrated thermal giant** - the SKS Power plant at Binjkot, Chhattisgarh, is a 2×300 MW facility commissioned in 2018 and acquired under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code process, with the acquisition completed in August 2024 and the undertaking amalgamated into SEML a month later. The plant sits near the Gare Palma IV/7 coal mine, with land, water, grid connectivity, and a railway siding already in place, so fuel arrives cheaply and power gets to market. - **Half contracted, half merchant** - roughly 50% of SKS Power’s capacity is tied up under long-term power purchase agreements, providing cash-flow visibility, while the balance is sold as merchant power, capturing upside when spot prices rise. The plant ran at a plant load factor of 79% in FY26, generating 5,458 million units - the highest annual thermal generation the company has ever recorded. - **Hydro as an annuity hedge** - four operational hydro plants totalling roughly 167 MW across Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, and Sikkim all run under long-term PPAs with state distribution companies, producing annuity-like revenues with high margins that act as a counterweight to the cyclical metals business. The newest, a 24.9 MW plant on the Rehar River, was commissioned in July 2025 under a 40-year PPA. - **Captive power keeps factories cheap** - an 81.5 MW thermal and waste-heat plant at Siltara and an 80 MW plant at Visakhapatnam together meet roughly 100% of the company’s in-house power needs for steel and ferro alloy manufacturing, insulating production costs from grid-price swings. - **A pipeline to double down** - the company has signed an MOU with the state government to double SKS Power to 4×300 MW by FY30, and a 50 MW captive solar plant is under construction to replace costly grid power at its factories and mines. ## 2. Minerals: the resource-security pillar **Captive coal and iron ore mines feed the power plants and steel mills at cost, while surplus production is sold commercially - making the minerals segment both a cost shield and a second growth lever.** - **A coal mine next door to its biggest customer** - the Gare Palma IV/7 open-cast mine in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, produced at its maximum permitted rate of 1.8 million tonnes in FY26 and sits roughly 70 km from the SKS Power plant and 200 km from the Siltara steel plant, slashing transport costs. A coal washery on the mine premises, with capacity being expanded to 1.8 MTPA, upgrades the coal before it moves. - **More mines in the pipeline** - five additional coal blocks are at various stages of development or bidding, including the Shahpur West underground mine in Madhya Pradesh (13.4 MT of extractable reserves), the Gare Palma IV/5 block won on a 25.75% revenue-sharing basis, and the Senduri block with 248.54 million tonnes of geological reserves won on a 9.5% revenue share. An Indonesian joint-venture mine produced 1.57 million tonnes in FY26, adding a source beyond India. - **Iron ore that covers a third of steelmaking needs** - the captive Dongarbore mine in Chhattisgarh, rated at 1.5 million tonnes per annum and located roughly 140 km from the Siltara plant, supplies 30-40% of the company’s iron ore requirement, reducing exposure to volatile open-market ore prices. - **An exploration bet in Maharashtra** - through a subsidiary joint venture with 51% economic interest, SEML holds a composite licence for the Surjagad 1 iron ore block, a 1,526-hectare unexplored area where prospecting is now underway. ## 3. Steel: the integrated legacy **A vertically integrated chain that starts with iron ore pellets and ends with drawn wire, where roughly 85% of each intermediate product is consumed in-house - giving the company the flexibility to sell at whichever stage offers the best margin.** - **Pellets as the entry point and a merchant product** - the Raipur pellet plant, with capacity recently expanded to 900,000 tonnes per annum, feeds about 35% of its output into the company’s own sponge iron furnaces and sells the rest domestically, averaging more than 100,000 tonnes of merchant sales per quarter. A further 1.1 million tonnes of pellet capacity has been approved by the board. - **Sponge iron and billets stay in the family** - of the 360,000 tonnes of sponge iron capacity, roughly 85% is consumed captively to make steel billets, and roughly 85% of those 300,000 tonnes of billet capacity is then rolled into wire rods - so very little semi-finished steel leaves the system. - **Wire rods and HB wire finish the chain** - the 250,000-tonne wire rod mill, expanded in 2023, feeds a 45,000-tonne HB wire drawing operation, with about 20% of wire rods converted into this higher-value cold-drawn product. Record production was set in FY26 for pellets, sponge iron, and HB wire. ## 4. Ferro alloys: the export franchise with a power-cost edge **A leading manganese-alloy producer whose power cost sits in the bottom quartile of the industry - a decisive advantage in a business where electricity can be 40-70% of production cost.** - **Two plants, two markets** - the Siltara plant in Chhattisgarh runs 45 MVA of furnace capacity aimed at the domestic market, while the Vizag plant in Andhra Pradesh, operated through subsidiary Sarda Metals & Alloys, runs 102 MVA of larger furnaces and is positioned near the port for export markets. The Vizag plant added a 36 MVA furnace in 2022, lifting capacity by roughly 50,000 tonnes per annum. - **Cheap captive power is the moat** - because the Vizag plant draws from an 80 MW captive thermal unit and the overall group power cost is among the lowest 25% in the industry, the ferro alloys business earns a comparative profitability advantage over competitors who buy grid power. The parent company, SEML, holds Two-Star Export House status, and its subsidiary, SMAL, holds Three-Star Export House status, reflecting the scale of its international shipments. - **Waste turned into a product** - a mineral wool plant at Vizag, commissioned in mid-2025, takes slag from the ferro alloy furnaces and turns it into industrial insulation material, producing 3,801 tonnes in its first partial year. The company also runs 21.5 MW of waste-heat recovery boilers on its sponge iron kilns, feeding power back into the factory. # Group structure and partners **A network of subsidiaries and joint ventures maps directly onto the energy, minerals, and metals engines - each entity is a dedicated vehicle for a specific mine, power plant, or factory.** - **Energy entities** - SKS Power Generation (the 600 MW thermal plant) was amalgamated into SEML in 2024; Madhya Bharat Power Corporation (84.65% held) owns the 113 MW Sikkim hydro project; Chhattisgarh Hydro Power LLP (100% held) owns the 24 MW Gullu and 24.9 MW Rehar hydro plants and holds licences for three more small projects totalling 73.8 MW. Sarda Energy Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, now acts as the investment vehicle for hydropower and in April 2026 the board approved the acquisition of a majority stake in Adishankar Khuitam Power, which holds the concession for a 66 MW hydro project in Arunachal Pradesh. - **Trading and investment arms** - wholly owned subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai handle international trading of metal ores, scrap, and coal, and hold the group’s overseas investments.