Tata Steel to establish steel plant in Bangladesh

Tata Steel to establish steel plant in Bangladesh

India's largest private sector steelmaker, Tata Steel, announced plans to start to work on a project to set up a greenfield steel plant in Bangladesh. Tata Steel indicated that talks with the Bangladeshi government are at an advanced stage, and a final agreement is expected to be signed at the beginning of 2006. The proposed plant, the site of which is likely to be in the western part of Bangladesh, is expected to come on stream by 2010. Negotiations on the site of the plant are continuing. The company previously asked to build a 2.4 million-ton steel plant in Bangladesh with an investment of $1.3 billion. The company now wants to make an additional investment of $500 million to develop a 6 million-ton coal mine. Regarding the projects of Tata, sources report that the Bangladeshi government may not let Tata make an investment in the country on its own, but instead may ask Tata to form a joint venture with a local investor.