Indian government-owned steel producers Rasthriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) are pushing ahead to construct greenfield steel mills in collaboration with global steel companies, a ministry of steel official said on Tuesday, January 22.
The ministry official said that a high-level official delegation of RINL will be visiting South Korea within the next month to meet Hyundai, carrying an offer to collaborate in the setting up of a 3 million mt per year auto-grade steel mill at RINL’s existing plant location at Vishakhapatnam in southern India.
The RINL delegation will lay on the table an offer to provide 20,000 acres of land available to locate the auto steel project which envisages a total investment to the tune of $4.22 billion.
At the same time, SAIL is exploring a project to construct a shore-based steel mill also in collaboration with either a South Korean or a Japanese steel company, the official said.
The choice of constructing a shore-based steel mill is significant since all five existing steel mills of SAIL are distant from the coastline and a shore-based steel mill will be ensure higher economic viability as most future steel projects will be highly dependent on imported raw materials like coking coal, the official added.