AML Steel, a Chennai-based steel manufacturer, has set eyes on units based in Central Asia and Eastern Europe as part of its plan for inorganic growth. | |
| "We are in talks with a couple of players and should get a more concrete picture by the first quarter of the FY07," said Ashok Agarwal, managing director. |
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| The company, which had earlier bought and turned around a sick steel unit in Sri Lanka, is open to either acquiring units or taking the management control through equity participation, added Viswanathan P, executive director, finance. |
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| "To raise resources, we are looking at various options including external commercial borrowing or going for foreign currency convertible bonds," said Viswanathan. |
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| However he was tightlipped on further financial details. As part of its organic growth strategy, AML is implementing a three-phase greenfield project to set up a steel plant in Jharkhand with a capacity of two million tonnes per annum. |
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| The Rs 1,944-crore project's first phase, which includes a plant with capacity to produce 1.1 lakh tonne of sponge iron and 42,000 tonne of billets, will be operational by January 2007. |
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| For the project, AML has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand government for a 20 year-lease of iron ore mines. Spread over 384 acre, the mine has a reserve of 25 million tonne of iron-ore, said Agarwal. |
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| The company, whose units in Pondicherry and Karaikal produce steel ingots, TMT bars and iron rods, is also setting up rolling mills at these plants. |
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