Steel companies scale down projects to suit land availability

Domestic and international steel companies have scaled down the size of their new projects, to bring down the requirements of land and iron ore deposits to realistic levels.

In Karnataka, ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and Posco are now asking for half of the land that they had sought in Jharkhand and Orissa.

The three companies, among the top 10 steel producers globally, had signed memoranda of understanding with Jharkhand and Orissa as many as four to five years back for putting up 6-12 million-tonne (mt) projects, however land acquisition problems and delays in mine allocation have held up their projects which are now in limbo.

Mittal had asked for around 10,000 acres, both in Jharkhand and Orissa, for his 12mt plant in each of the two states and the requirement of iron ore was learnt to be 600mt each.

Tata Steel had sought 3,500 acres for a 6mt plant in Kalinganagar for which the land required was 10,000 acres for a 15mt plant in Jharkhand while Posco wanted 4,000 acres for its Orissa plant.

In comparison, the proposals for the projects in Karanataka are fairly modest with Posco and Mittal looking to set up 6 mt plants each on 2,000 acres and 4,000 acres, respectively. Tata Steel, subsidiary Tata Metaliks, has proposed a 3mt plant on 2,000 acres of land.