SAIL, Posco to set up steel plant

State-owned SAIL would set up a steel plant in joint venture with South Korean major Posco for which it had already inked an MoU, its chairman S K Roongta said.

"We are in serious stages of discussion with Posco for setting up a steel making facility at Jharkhand," Roongta said.

Roongta said that the JV plant would use the Finex technology, which uses iron-ore fines and non-coking coal, and would have an initial capacity of two million tonnes. The SAIL chief, who was recently in South Korea, said, "More talks will be held regarding the JV."

He said that the detailed project report (DPR) was being prepared. "The JV will benefit SAIL, a win-win situation for both," Roongta said. In an another initiative, SAIL would also tie up with Posco for setting up cold rolled non-oriented (CRNO) steel plant in Maharashtra.

To a query, he said that the details and quantum of investments required were not ascertained yet. SAIL is also in talks with Arcelor-Mittal and Tata Steel for new JVs in steel making.

The steel PSU was also keen on setting up a greenfield plant in the surplus land available at Sindri fertiliser plant in Jharkhand, Roongta said. "Due diligence of the project is yet to be done", he said. Roongta retires on May 30 and would be succeeded by C S Verma.