Indian state-run companies, steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and miner KIOCL Limited (formerly Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited), have agreed to set up a joint venture company to construct an iron ore pellet plant, sources said on Tuesday, September 3.
According to the sources, while the two companies have agreed to conduct a detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed pellet plant and to fix the annual capacity for such a project, SAIL prefers to locate the pellet plant close to its existing Bokaro Steel Plant (BSP), with SAIL offering to provide the necessary land and infrastructure required for the project, the sources said.
KIOCL, which operates a 3.5 million mt per year iron ore pellet plant at Karnataka in southern India, earlier entered into a similar agreement with state-run steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) to construct a 1.2 million mt per year joint venture pellet plant at the southern Indian port town of Vishkhapatnam.