A Posco executive on Thursday confirmed that talks were on with the private Indian steel companies and that a final decision on the sale was yet to be taken.
"Essar Steel and Uttam Galva have expressed the willingness to buy the old mini-steel mill and the company is evaluating their offers," said the executive.
But he refused to discuss what price Posco was expecting for the Kwangyang plant, which had a capacity to produce two million tonnes a year of hot steel.
An Essar Steel spokesperson said, "Posco has certain steel equipment to be sold. We understand that they have approached various steel manufacturers, including us. It is too premature to comment on this."
A spokesperson of Uttam Galva said the company did not comment on market speculation.
Posco, South Korea's largest steel producer, has committed an investment of $12 billion in setting up a 12-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa. For this, it has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government.
Asked why Posco was selling its steel plant, the executive said the mill was "old" and "if a company shows genuine interest in buying it, Posco is ready to sell".
Essar Steel had, in September this year, purchased two units of South Korea's INI Steel for about Rs 437 crore (Rs 4.37 billion). These mills use the corex technology to produce steel.
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