HYDERABAD: The proposed joint venture between steel giants Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and ArcelorMittal to produce high-end automotive steel will be signed soon, Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said here on Friday. The proposed auto-grade steel plant, with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum that can be scaled up to 2.5 mt, is a Rs 15,000 crore project, Singh noted.
“ArcelorMittal has the technology and is keen to have JV with SAIL. The JV is yet to be signed but 99 per cent of the formalities have already been completed. Two offers have come from Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh governments for setting up plant. Keeping in view the eastern coast Andhra Pradesh, it has been thought that Andhra Pradesh would be better site to put up this JV plant,” said the minister added. SAIL and ArcelorMittal had entered into an MoU in May 2015 to explore the possibility of setting up an auto-grade steel manufacturing facility under a JV in India.
The minister, who was in Hyderabad to participate in the diamond jubilee celebrations state-run miner NMDC, also said that Nagarnar Steel Plant will be commissioned next year. Nagarnar Steel Plant is a first-of-its-kind green field steel plant to be built by NMDC, which has already invested Rs 13,000 crore and the plant is in advanced stage of construction.