Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI), a state-owned special-purpose alloy plant for defense equipment, was seeking overseas special grade alloy raw material suppliers and planned a cooperation projects to reduce its dependence on Chinese imports.

The project might be conducted in the same path as MIDHANI's cooperation with state-owned iron miner National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC Limited). Previously, MIDHANI cooperated with NMDC Limited to win the right to exploit tungsten minerals in Vietnam and supply domestic defense equipment.

The production of defense equipment required large amount of special steel, special grade alloys and titanium alloys. However, India didn't produce these raw materials, so it was extremely necessary to rely on Chinese imports.

Nevertheless, Chinese special alloy suppliers were more able to provide competitive prices, so MIDHANI must cooperate with overseas raw material suppliers and state-owned enterprises in order to compete with Chinese prices. In addition, MIDHANI also focused on stabilizing sources of nickel and cobalt from oversea.