Even as the row on land acquisition surrounding big ticket steel projects proposed in Odisha by Posco and ArcelorMittal is yet to be settled, the state has seen grounding of investments worth Rs 50,623 crore in the steel sector (as on March 31, 2012).
And, this investment figure is without counting the money put in by either Posco or ArcelorMittal or any other steel biggie like Tata Steel and Essar Steel. The investments have flown from 30 steel firms that have begun production on a partial scale after signing MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the state government.
These companies, put together, have achieved a steel output of 12.66 million tonne per annum (mtpa).
The operational steel units have also achieved captive power plant (CPP) capacity of 997 MW.
The 30 steel units going into production have generated direct employment for 20587 people and created 30,815 indirect jobs. The direct employment figure includes 14176 jobs for people of Odisha and 6411 from outside the state. Similarly, out of 30815 people employed indirectly, 25880 are from the state with the balance 4935 being outsiders.
These steel firms have paid Rs 1304.54 crore to the state government and Rs 4079.39 crore (as on March 31, 2012) to the Centre by way of taxes. Besides, they have spent Rs 87.63 crore on peripheral development.
Among these 30 firms, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd is the biggest investor with an investment of Rs 22,290 crore. It has achieved steel capacity of 1.5 mtpa, sponge iron capacity of 1.5 mtpa and CPP of 116 MW at its plant at Lapanga near Sambalpur.
It is followed by Bhushan Steel Ltd which has grounded an investment of Rs 14,000 crore, clocking steel production of 4.5 mtpa and sponge iron output of 2.38 mtpa at Meramandali in Dhenkanal district.
The next biggest investor is Visa Steel, having invested Rs 2808 crore on its Kalinganagar steel plant in Jajpur district. It has achieved steelmaking capacity of 0.5 mtpa and sponge iron production of 0.30 mtpa. The company has also installed a 75 MW CPP at the site.
Other major investors in the steel sector include Adhunik Metaliks Ltd (Rs 2100 crore), MSP Metaliks Ltd (Rs 975 crore), Sree Metaliks (Rs 717.10 crore), Action Ispat & Power Ltd (Rs 649 crore), Aarti Steels Ltd (Rs 636 crore) and Maithan Ispat (Rs 612.14 crore).The state government had signed MoUs with 50 players with a combined steelmaking capacity of 83.66 million tonnes with total investment proposal of Rs 2.3 lakh crore.
