NMDC,Tata Steel may set up steel plant

NMDC said it is in talks with Tata Steel to sign a joint venture for setting up a steel plant at Bastar.

Iron ore miner NMDC today said it is in talks with Tata Steel to sign an equal joint venture for setting up a 2-mtpa steel plant at Bastar in Chhattisgarh.

“We are in talks with Tata Steel to set up 50:50 JV for a 2-mtpa steel plant in South Bastar,” NMDC Technical Director N K Nanda told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

Nanda,however,declined to divulge any further details on the proposed joint venture.

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“Nothing has been finalised,only an MoU has been signed between Tata and us. Probably after sometime,NMDC and Tata may come together to set up a 2 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant,” he said.

“To take it forward,both the Boards will have to discuss it further,” Nanda added.

State-run NMDC and Tata Steel had signed the MoU in January last year to examine the possibility of a strategic alliance for acquisition,exploration and development of mines and setting up integrated steel plants.

The iron ore miner has,however,started working on its own 3-mtpa steel plant in Chhattisgarh.

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“We are going ahead with our own steel plant (of 3 MTPA). We have already floated nine tenders for that. Two of them main plant and blast furnace — have been finalised. We are expecting that production will begin by 2014,” he said.

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