SAIL mulls Australian coke mines buy

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), the nation’s biggest state-run producer, said it was considering buying coking coal mines in Australia, Indonesia and Mozambique with an Indian government joint venture.

“We are looking at several opportunities, but I can’t discuss the names,” SK Roongta, chairman, said in an interview in Beijing today. “I can’t set a timeline but we would like it to happen at the earliest.”

SAIL, one of five companies in the International Coal Ventures Private Ltd venture, is boosting steel output to meet domestic demand that would continue to grow, Roongta said. Steel demand in India may rise 8.9 per cent in 2009 and 12.1 per cent in 2010, the World Steel Association said yesterday.

“India will continue to grow for years because we are a developing country,” Roongta said. “I don’t see, in the near future, steel demand levelling off.” International Coal Ventures also has Coal India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, National Mineral Development Corporation and NTPC Ltd., according to the venture’s Web site. The venture has $750 million in capital and $1.5 billion in borrowings, and plans to invest $2.2 billion, Roongta said.

SAIL was in talks with the Indian government to be allotted the entire Chiria iron ore mine, Roongta said today. There were no other companies involved in the mine, he said.

The company’s crude steel output would be 14 million tonnes in the year ending June 30 2010, increasing to 15 million tonnes the following year, he said.