The Hindu : Business : Tata Steel to invest Rs. 15,000 cr. in Orissa project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 09, 2005

Business

Business

Tata Steel to invest Rs. 15,000 cr. in Orissa project

JAMSHEDPUR, MARCH 8. Tata Steel today said it would invest Rs. 15,000 crores in the Kalinganagar project in Orissa and would explore only greenfield opportunities in the country while looking out for acquisitions abroad.

"We have made investment plans of Rs. 15,000 crores for the six million tonne at Kalinganagar and land has been acquired for the purpose,'' the Managing Director of Tata Steel, B. Muthuraman, said on the sidelines of the first Asian Global Compact Regional Conclave here.

He said the detailed project report would be completed by July and the construction of the plant would be completed in four years in two phases of three million tonne capacity each.

The site had already been developed by the Orissa Industrial Development Corporation and did not require forest clearance, Mr. Muthuraman said.

In view of the proximity of the plant site to the coast, a port was also being developed at Dhamra with an investment of Rs. 1,500 crores. The port was coming up in equal partnership with Larsen and Toubro, the Managing Director added.

To a question whether Tata Steel was eyeing acquiring overseas plants following its takeover of NatSteel of Singapore, Mr. Muthuraman said the company would be looking at greenfield opportunities in the country and acquisitions abroad.

It was ever on the look out for acquisition opportunities for plants of one million and two million tonne capacities across the world including Australia and South Africa.

The company was convening an extraordinary general meeting on March 24 for seeking a nod for generating Rs. 5,000 crores for expansion projects and the Bombay Stock Exchange had been informed about it. Tata Steel plans to raise its capacity of the Jamshedpur plant to 7.7 million tonnes by 2008 and the overall capacity to 15 million tonnes by 2010. Mr. Muthuraman said the takeover of three plants of NatSteel in China, situated near the coast with a capacity of about half a million tonnes, was taking time due to China's regulatory process but he expected it to be over shortly.

A cold rolled process centre and education institute had been envisaged in Gopalpur and the former would come up after six months to one year of starting operation at Kalinganagar.

Earlier, inaugurating the Global Compact Regional Conclave, Mr. Muthuraman referred to the message of United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who lauded for Jamshedpur holding the first regional meeting and its selection as `Global Compact City.'

PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business