Talks with Posco on: Patnaik

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said talks were still on with South Korean steel giant Posco for setting up India's largest steel plant in the state and that the discussions would crystallise "very soon".

"Let the details be worked out," Patnaik told reporters here, adding, "The state's interest would be safeguarded in the deal."

Posco had approached the Orissa government for setting up a plant with a capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum with an investment of Rs 45,000 crore.

The proposal has had a roller-coaster ride, more so in the last six months, after the state government denied to give 960 million tonnes of iron ore to a single steel producer, as demanded by Posco.

Instead, a counter offer of 480 million tonnes was made, forcing the two to postpone signing a memorandum of understanding, that was scheduled for April 14.

The debate over exporting iron ore from India cropped up because Posco claimed that it had to import a certain variety of iron ore from Australia to be blended with the Indian varieties.

the Indian ore was 2-3 per cent higher than what was required and therefore, it needed to be blended with ore imported from Australia.

The state, which has been approached by a number of steel-producing companies for projects, has so far signed 35 MoUs.

These include MoUs with the Essar group and the Murugappa group for investing about Rs 14,000 crore in the state.