Sinosteel enters India; sets up shop in Jharkhand

China-based Sinosteel on Monday said it would set up its first integrated steel plant in Jharkhand and a cold forged rolls unit at Haldia in West Bengal.

China-based Sinosteel on Monday said it would set up its first integrated steel plant in Jharkhand and a cold forged rolls unit at Haldia in West Bengal.

Ducking the prevalent trend of securing iron ore reserves before starting construction, the company would apply for captive mining leases but will not wait for them to start construction. “We are in the mining, designing and equipment supply business and participated in the construction of big steel plants in China, but it will be for the first time that we are putting up an integrated steel plant,” Hongsen Wang, managing director of Sinosteel India Private Ltd, said on the eve of the International Steel Seminar being organised by Steel Scenario journal.

“We will try to get a captive mine and apply for the mining lease but we will not wait for the captive mine and start construction as soon as we get the land.” Wang said Sinosteel has submitted the proposal to the government for setting up the steel plant in Jharkhand for which the company would invest $2 billion. “It will be a five-million-tonne plant, but in the first phase we will start with two-million-tonne,” he said, adding that 3,000 acre would be required for the project. He said the company has prepared a report for its plant which would come up between Silli and Chandil and was being vetted through MECON. On the cold forged rolls unit in West Bengal, he said 30 acre had been acquired for the project in Haldia which would be set up at a cost of $ 25 million.

Wang said, the construction for cold forged rolls unit plant at Haldia would begin in April and it would be operational by July next year. The plant would produce 5,000 cold forged rolls, 60 per cent of which was now being imported. Sinosteel, he said, had a turnover of $16 billion in 2006-07.

Wang said that bilateral trade between India and China was likely to double by 2010 from the current level of $30 billion and steel would play an important role. He said in the steel sector the two countries could work together in many areas. China had the technology to use low grade iron ore fines which were not used in India. “We have the technology for blast furnace, sinter and pelletisation plants which can at the same time be environment-friendly,” he said.