The UK and Nigeria-based Gupta family (brothers Raj, Sanjeev and Alok), which controls London-headquartered steel trading company Liberty Commodities Ltd, has announced that the work on its new steel production facility Transdanube Industries SRL (Transdanube), which is being built in the southern Romanian city of Oltenita, is continuing as planned. Demolition and clean up has already commenced as per EU regulations, construction will start by the end of the year and the plant is expected to be fully commissioned by mid 2013.
The new mill, located in the old Turol casting house in Oltenita, which had been acquired by the Gupta family in 2007, will include a billet plant and rolling mill supplied by leading Italian plant maker Danieli. The 70 mt electric arc furnace will be continuously charged with scrap using Consteel technology supplied by Tenova and the rolling mill will produce rebar with a diameter range of 8-32 mm, The new facility is planned to have an annual production capacity of 500,000 mt of steel billet rolled into rebar. Transdanube also intends to produce light steel sections in the future.
Transdanube anticipates that half of the €150 million-worth Oltenita plant's products will be sold in the Romanian domestic steel market, while the rest will be exported to the EU, North Africa and the Middle East. The company estimates a turnover of €250 million at the plant after production starts.
Gupta family already has steel mills and projects in Nigeria, Sudan, Morocco and India, with a production capacity of one million mt of steel. This figure is expected to reach three million mt by 2013.