India's Essar Group has increased the planned capacity of an iron ore pellet plant in Minnesota from 4 million metric tons (mt) to 7 million mt-the plant is expected to be operational by 2012.
Added capacity at the pellet plant will ensure sufficient supply of the steelmaking raw material to Essar's steel plant in Canada, Essar Steel Algoma. This is good news for Essar Steel Algoma, which recently reported a C$285.9 million (US$293.7 million) net loss in fiscal 2011, largely due to higher raw material costs.
Raising the capacity of the pellet plant will also leave excess iron ore available for Essar to sell on the open market.