Sail Urged To Pick Partner For Iisco Revival

Union steel and mines minister Birendra Pratap Baishya, talking to Business Standard after the 31st annual general meeting of the Steel Furnace Association of India, said the prospects for rehabilitating Burnpur-based steel plant in a joint venture with the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) appear good and that the steel ministry will spare no effort in finding a solution to IISCO's problems.

As per the latest directive of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), SAIL has been given a October 30 deadline for choosing a private sector partner for reviving Iisco in a joint venture where SAIL will have a 51 per cent equity stake.

 

About 37 per cent of the equity will be offered to the prospective private sector partner, with the government of West Bengal and employees of IISCO each picking up 6 per cent.

Earlier, addressing members of the Steel Furnace Association, the minister said the secondary steel sector, including about 90 electric arc furnace (EAF) units, contribute around 50 per cent to the total steel production in the country.

However, there is an urgent need to improve technology, improve product mix and quality since overall production by these units reached only 56 per cent of its effective production capacity of six million tonnes.

Steel Furnace Association president Prashant Jhawar urged the government to freeze import duties on finished steel items and semis upto March 1999, and to reduce the excise on construction steel from 15 to 5 per cent.

He also urged the introduction of a two-tier power tariff policy with discounted off peak hours rate to the EAF producers.