MUMBAI : Eight years after nixing a plan to build a steel plant in Odisha, ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, along with joint venture partner Nippon Steel, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to build an integrated steel complex.
The project in the Kendrapara district will entail an investment of ₹50,000 crore for the plant, which will have the capacity to produce 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
L.N. Mittal, chairman of the Mittal group, said the complex will be in addition to other investments of AM/NS in Odisha, including the 6 mtpa pelletization plant in Paradeep, which will be expanded to 12 mtpa; a beneficiation complex in Keonjhar and a slurry pipeline that are operational.
Odisha has always attracted interest among steelmakers as it is home to about one-third of India’s reserves of iron ore. While steelmakers in public and private sectors have a significant presence in Odisha, foreign firms have so far failed to establish any major manufacturing capacity in the state.
ArcelorMittal first signed a similar memorandum with Odisha in 2006 to build a 12 mtpa plant but pulled out in 2013, citing inordinate delay and problems with acquiring land and securing iron ore linkages.
South Korean steel firm Posco and Lord Swraj Paul’s Caparo group are among others who have seen their Odisha plans fall through in the last two decades.
AM/NS India, the joint venture of ArcelorMittal and Japan’s Nippon Steel, is an integrated flat steel maker and the largest steel firm in western India with a crude steel output capacity of 9.6 mtpa.
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