Investors Paradise France:

Associated Cement Companies (ACC) has initiated talks with OP Jindal group's Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd (JVSL) to set up a one million tonne cement unit at Bellary in Karnataka.

Sources close to ACC said the company was holding talks with JVSL to utilise slag for setting up the cement unit. Larsen & Toubro (L&T), among other cement majors, has also evinced interest in the project, industry sources claim.

Sajjan Jindal, chairman and managing director of Jindal Iron and Steel Company, said the company was promoting the project to utilise the slag, a by-product while making steel.

JVSL is not planning to invest in the new cement unit by way of equity and would only provide slag

 

as raw material to manufacture cement. Jindal

pointed out that "we will only be in the steel

business and will not pick up any equity in the

cement company."

With the two corex unit going on-stream, JVSL will be producing 0.5 million tonne granulated slag as a by-product which can be utilised to manufacture one million tonne of cement.

JVSL chairman S K Gupta confirmed that the company has held initial discussions with a few cement majors who have evinced interest in the project. The final agreement is expected to be signed by the end of this calendar year 1999. "The interested parties have already undertaken a feasibility study on the project," he added.

The cement manufacturer will set up a clinker and grinding units and can cater to the growing southern market especially in Karnataka. According to analysts the demand growth in the southern states for cement is much higher than that witnessed in the northern states.

JVSL is expected to rake in money from the infrastructure facilities and township which they have already set in place. Rs 6,70,000 crore. As many as 560 stocks soared to five year highs, and of these, 350 stocks touched an all-time high. ">