South Korean steel major POSCO and Indian government-owned steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) have revived a project for setting up a 3 million mt steel plant next to SAIL’s existing steel mill at Bokaro in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand, an official at India’s Ministry of Steel told SteelOrbis on Wednesday, January 21.
POSCO officials met the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and informed him of POSCO’s collaboration with SAIL in making new investments in the country estimated to be worth around $2.9 billion.
The SAIL-POSCO joint venture next to former’s Bokaro steel plant was first proposed in 2011 but the project was shelved following differences between the two partners on the ownership structure of the joint venture, with both companies seeking a majority stake in the venture.
However, talks between two companies were revived and over the past two months it was agreed that the partners would hold a 49 percent equity stake each in the venture, while the remaining two percent would be offered to various financial institutions, the official said.
Land for the project will be provided by SAIL which has extra land at its Bokaro steel plant.