Steel sector sees Rs 1.09 lakh cr investment

Investments worth Rs 1.09 lakh crore have been grounded in the steel sector in Odisha. The investments have flown from private sector steel entities that had signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the state government from 2002 to 2010.

As many as 50 steel investors had signed MoUs with the state government, envisaging a steel capacity of 79.82 million tonne and committing investments worth Rs 2.22 lakh crore.

Of this, ArcelorMittal has withdrawn from its 12 million tonne mega steel plant and the MoU with Maharashtra Seamless has been scrapped due to unsatisfactory progress on the project.

A status note provided to the state assembly industries minister Debi Mishra says 34 MoU signed steel units have commenced partial production. Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd, Essar Steel Odisha Ltd, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Deepak Steel & Power Ltd, Visa Steel, Jindal Stainless Ltd, Adhunik Metaliks Ltd, Bhushan Steel Ltd and Brahmani River Pellets Ltd (BRPL) are amongst the players to have started production.

The proponents who have invested significantly on their projects are Bhushan Power & Steel (Rs 25,000 crore), Bhushan Steel Ltd (Rs 21,817 crore), JSPL (Rs 17,536.41 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 13,625 crore) and JSL Ltd (Rs 8,333.32 crore).

Tata Steel's six million tonne greenfield steel plant coming up at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district is under construction. The first phase of this steel plant with capacity of three million tonne per annum (mtpa) is expected to be commissioned by March 2015. Posco India has invested Rs 441 crore on its 12 million tonne steel plant proposed near Paradeep. Though 2,700 acres of land necessary for eight mtpa steel plant of Posco in the first phase has been acquired, only 1,700 acres has been transferred to the project authority. The balance 1,000 acres is pending for transfer as Posco India is yet to deposit land dues of Rs 54 crore.

Land acquisition is pending for projects proposed by other steel makers like Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd, Konark Ispat Ltd, Welspun Power & Steel Ltd, Pradhan Steel & Power Ltd, Tecton Ispat Ltd, Atha Mines Ltd and Amtek Metal & Mining Ltd.