The Hindu : Business : Thrust on special steel

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Friday, Jul 01, 2005

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Thrust on special steel

Special Correspondent

PIB clears VSP expansion plan; NMDC to supply ore

VISAKHAPATNAM: The new steel policy, which is expected to be cleared by the Union Cabinet in July, will allow steel mills to develop a diversified product mix, with an emphasis on manufacturing special steel, for which there is a huge global demand.

Announcing this at a media conference at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) on Thursday, the Union Steel Secretary, Mano Ranjan, said the policy would envisage export of 25 per cent of the production by 2020. As for imports, he said it stood at two million tonnes last year and this year it could be marginally up due to import of hot rolled coils.

With the prospect of new private mills dotting the steel map, he said the scenario "is good'' and particularly mentioned about the MoU signed by the Orissa government with Korea's Pohang Steel Company (Posco) for a 12 million tonne plant.

Revealing that the Public Investment Board had cleared VSP's expansion plan, he said with the formal nod from the Cabinet in a couple of months, the project, envisaging production of 6.30 million tonnes of liquid steel, should be through.

On the possibility of VSP acquiring a captive iron ore mine, he noted that it had approached the Governments of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, but they had not yet responded.

``An experts group, headed by R. K. Jain, is going into the issue of setting guidelines to mineral-rich States on allotting captive mines for steel plants. It is expected to submit its report in July. Once the guidelines are approved, they will be binding on those Governments,'' he said. VSP would have no problem in going ahead with its expansion, because National Mineral Development Corporation had agreed to supply the needed ore quantity. Mr. Mano Ranjan said the steel mills had to depend on coking coal imports from Australia, the main global supplier, and indicated a VSP-SAIL tie-up for this purpose, based on their requirements.

The Joint Secretary (Steel), S. N. Dash, and the VSP Chairman and Managing Director, Y. Siva Sagar Rao, were present at the press conference.

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