Even as it awaits the government's nod for the proposed Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) investment in a ten million tonnes per annum steel plant in Orissa, Posco, the South Korean steel giant, on Friday said that India is its preferred destination over Brazil and China.
"We are considering making investments in Brazil and China but we prefer India over them," a top official from Posco said.
"We are seeking a long term lease with the ministry of coals and mines, to ensure steady supply of iron ore. A 10 million tonne steel plant would require 70 million tonnes of iron ore. We believe the region has the potential to provide this quantity of iron ore," he said.
A high-level team from Posco headed by the Jeong, Tae-Hyun recently met the Steel Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and officials from the coal and mines ministry to discuss their investment proposal.
The first phase will be for a 3 million tonne plant in Orissa. The investments will be scaled up over a period of time in more than one plant in that region," the official said adding that the company was looking for a long-term presence in the country.
Posco has also denied any interest in investing in the Dhamra port in Orissa. "We make high quality steel at economical price. We would like to focus on that," the official said.
Earlier, the Orissa government had indicated that it would be willing to allow Posco to invest in the Dhamra port, that is currently being developed by the government with the participation of companies like L&T.
"We are not happy with the port as the depth of this port is only four meters. We need at least 22 meter-deep port," he said. Posco is also not keen on investing in making the port deeper.
Posco already has six steel plants in China producing around 300,000 tonnes annually. "We have invested $2.5 billion in China. They are inviting us to invest further, but we are looking at India for increasing our capacity in this region," the official asserted.
Posco officials said it expects the government to encourage this investment by developing the road and rail lines and provide state of the art infrastructure to attract this investment into the country.
The company is in the process of setting up a 'India Project Team' headed by Jeong which will oversee this project.
Earlier a senior official with the government of Orissa said that a team of geologists and civil engineers from Posco are visiting Orissa to profile the soil. "The government has indicated two or three locations which the company can chose from," the official said.