Posco, Mesco to have next dialogue on Finex plant in November

Once both firms sign pact for transfer of Finex technology, Posco's Finex unit in Korea will be dismantled and set up at Mesco premises

South Korean steel major and Odisha based steel firm Mesco Steel are slated to have the next round of talks in November this year on the proposed transfer of Finex technology to the Mesco steel facility at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district.

"A delegation of Mesco Steel officials visited the Posco headquarters in Seoul recently. But the talks failed to reach a decisive stage. The next round of discussions are scheduled in November. The bipartite meeting between Posco and Mesco can take place either in Seoul or in India", said a Mesco source.

Both Posco and Mesco would enter into a definitive pact for transfer of Finex technology. After that, the process of dismantling of Posco's Finex plant in Korea and its subsequent installation at Mesco premises would take off.

To facilitate the transfer of Finex technology, both Mesco and Posco had signed a memorandum of agreement in March this year. In an earlier statement, Mesco Steel had said Posco would have 26 per cent equity in the joint venture (JV) project.

Noted consultant Dastur & Company was roped in to study the modalities of the technology patented by Posco. Since the Finex plant requires a lot of oxygen and power, Mesco Steel has already initiated talks with some companies for setting up auxiliary plants on the JV route. The Finex plant during operation would need a running 100 Mw captive power plant (CPP) and an oxygen plant of 1,000 tonne per day (tpd) capacity.

Finex process is expected to cut hot metal production cost for Mesco by Rs 2000-2500 per tonne.

Finex technology, developed exclusively by Posco, is the process to smelt iron ore without using expensive coking coal. As the process uses normal coal abundantly found in Odisha, it will reduce the cost of production for hot metal.

Mesco Steel currently has two blast furnaces at its Kalinganagar facility whose revamp has been completed at a cost of Rs 70 crore in the last 18 months.

It has an operational mine at Roida (Barbil), 190 km from the plant site, with an annual production capacity of three million tonne per annum (mtpa). Mesco's Kalinganagar plant has a pig iron making facility of 1.2 mtpa. It hopes to achieve steel making capacity of 3.5 mtpa within a span of four years.