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Seven years after ArcelorMittal pulled out from its greenfield project in Odisha, its joint venture with Nippon Steel – AM/NS India – may be considering setting up a steel plant in the state.
Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister of steel, visited AM/NS India’s plant at Hazira (Gujarat) on Monday. The AM/NS leadership made a presentation on how it plans to contribute to the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.
The minister tweeted after his visit: the clarion call for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat has paved the way for bold decisions and investments. Happy that AMNS India has evinced interest for expanding its investment footprints to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in Odisha, especially in the areas of value added & special steels.
He also mentioned that AM/NS India was actively engaging to come up with a 12 million tonne steel plant in Odisha.
People in the know indicated that this was at a proposal stage and the company was planning to set up a state-of-the-art of rail mill, hot strip mill, value added long and flat product capacities in Odisha. AM/NS India already has a palletization plant in Odisha, which too, is being expanded from 6 million tonnes to 12 million tonnes.
Incidentally, ArcelorMittal had signed an MoU in 2006 for a 12 million tonne plant in Odisha. However, it did not take off and the company pulled out in 2013 after a long wait.
Apart from the fresh proposal for a steel plant, AM/NS India has plans of doubling capacity at existing location in a phased manner. On the occasion of the minister’s visit, Dilip Oommen, CEO of AM/NS India, said: “It is encouraging to receive the government’s support to deliver on our promise of providing better steel to a new India. AM/NS India is confident of sustainably meeting the growing steel demand through various products and significantly contribute to the Prime Minister’s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat.”
AM/NS India just completed a year of operations after ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel jointly acquired Essar Steel under India’s insolvency law and renamed it. It has a current production capacity of nine million tonnes.
