POSCO, Uttam Galva arm tem up for steel plant in Maharashtra
11 Aug 2015
South Korean steelmaker giant Posco has signed an agreement with Shree Uttam Steel and Power to set up a 3 million tonne per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant in Maharashtra, Uttam Steel said today.
The two companies have started work on a detailed project report (DPR), and construction activity is expected to commence from September 2016, the Indian firm said.
Shree Uttam Steel and Power Ltd is owned by the Miglani family and co-promoter Uttam Galva Steels Ltd, which is jointly owned by ArcelorMittal. Uttam Galva processes hot-rolled steel to finished coils for domestic and export markets.
The plant would be the first in India for POSCO, the world's No6 steelmaker, as it continues to battle regulatory hurdles for a decade-old project to set up a mega $12 billion steel plant in the eastern Odisha state.
POSCO, which already has steel processing centres in Pune, Chennai and near New Delhi, is promoting its special steels business in India even as it scrapped the Odisha project after a new law made it costlier to source iron ore for the plant.
Both POSCO and ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, have scrapped a number of other projects in India over the past two years, citing difficulties in acquiring land and mines.
The proposed joint venture is planned to be set up at Satara in Sindhudurg district, in two phases, and hopes to take advantage of an expected surge in steel demand in the country, the company said.
The investment is estimated to cost about $1 billion per 1-million-tonne-per-year steel plant.
