SAIL-Posco JV pact likely in 2 months: Verma

Public sector steel giant SAIL today said the agreement for a joint venture with South Korean Posco to set up a plant of Rs 15,000 crore will be ready within two months.

"Detail Project Report (DPR) for the joint venture with Posco will be ready within two months," SAIL chairman C S Verma told reporters here on the sidelines of a seminar here.

Stating that both the partners in the joint venture were discussing various provisions of agreement, Verma said "this will also be ready within two months."

SAIL and Posco are working on a joint venture to set up a 2.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 3 mtpa integrated steel plant at Bokaro in Jharkhand at an investment of Rs 12,000-15,000 crore, he said adding the minimum gestation period for the project was three years from the date of signing of the agreement.

On SAIL's expansion plan to enhance its production capacity from 14 mtpa to 24 mtpa, Verma said about Rs 80,000 crore would be invested in project, of which major portion would be met by and large from internal resources of the central public sector undertaking.

"We have already placed order for equipments worth Rs 50,000 crore," Verma said.

On SAIL's Flow of Public Offer (FPO), the chairman said merchant bankers had already been finalised. He, however, said time for bringing FPO depended on the market condition.

Stating that quantum of steel production in the country would witness a quantum jump in next seven to eight years, he said that SAIL's annual turn over had already touched $10 billion.