Posco plant to spawn ancillary, downstream units

As many as 36 steel ancillary industries and 19 downstream industries are expected to be operational in the Paradip industrial cluster following the commissioning of the 12 million tonne per annum steel mill proposed by Posco India.

This was informed by minister for steel & mines and industries Raghunath Mohanty in the state assembly.

The ancillary units that are set to come up around the Posco steel plant include refractory materials, lancing pipes, forged rounds, foundry, steel strapplings, structural fabrication workshop, sophisticated machine shops, ferro alloys, hard coke, welding electrodes, conveyor belt, belt fasteners, fly ash bricks, calcinated petroleum coke, cotton waste and steel casting to name a few.

Among the downstream that are expected to be functional are coal tar lag processing, coke briquettes, cement plants using bottom ash, granulated slag cement plant, steel utensils, sheet metal works, industrial fastener, refining of used lubricating oil and sheet metal works.

The state government has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with four industrial players- National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), JSL Ltd, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) and Adhunik Metaliks, the minister added. Bhushan Steel's proposal for a downstream park at Meramandali in Dhenkanal district was under scrutiny of the state government, he added.

Nalco had proposed to set up an aluminium downstream park at Angul through a joint venture with Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco). Notification under Section 4 (1) has been issued for acquisition of private land while transfer of government land to the JV company has been approved.

JSL Ltd had signed an MoU with the state government for establishment of an industrial park at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district in February 2010 at a cost of Rs 704 crore.

Another steel maker- Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) has committed an investment of Rs 500 crore for a downstream industrial park in Orissa, moving ahead with its string of investments in the state including a greenfield steel plant, a coal to liquid project and a proposed deep sea port.

The company had signed MoU with the state government in November 2011 for setting up the park at Parang in Angul district. The downstream industrial park is expected to attract investments of Rs 5,000 crore besides generating employment opportunities for 32,000 people, both direct and indirect. The park is also set to generate tax revenue worth Rs 700 crore per annum for the state government.