India-based Mesco Steel (Mesco) has announced its plans for the construction of two steel plants in Jajpur, Orissa at a total investment cost of $2.8 billion.
The first of these projects will be a brownfield expansion, which will be directed towards enhancing the existing capacity at Mideast Integrated Steels Ltd (MISL), in which Mesco holds an 88.5 percent stake. The pig iron plant in question will be developed into a 3.5 million mt per annum steel plant at a cost of $1.2 billion.
Secondly, Mesco will invest $1.6 billion in its subsidiary, Mesco Kalinga Steel Ltd (MKSL), for the construction of a three million mt per annum greenfield plant. The annual capacity of the mill can be later increased to five million mt.
Mesco Steel's managing director Rita Singh stated that Mesco is in the process of finalizing a JV for the MKSL project and that the JV partner is planned to be determined in the coming two to three months. MKSL has already acquired around 800 acres for the proposed greenfield project. Both the greenfield and brownfield projects are foreseen to go into operation by 2010-2011.
Ms Singh added that MISL will mainly manufacture long products but that they could also add slabs and billets to the product portfolio, whereas at MKSL both longs and flats production is planned.