Tisco No To Ispat Plant

Tata Steel has turned down M L Mittal-controlled Ispat Industries's offer to sell it its Kalmeshwar complex near Nagpur, that houses a 3 lakh tonne cold rolling mill (CRM) and a galvanisation unit.

The Tata group flagship decided against taking up the offer as it does not see the galvanised steel business as a key focus area.

The flagship of the Mittals is in a severe financial crunch following the Rs 1,400 crore cost overrun of its integrated steel project in Dolvi, Maharashtra, to around Rs 6,200 crore. The financial institutions, which had set stiff pre-conditions for the release of additional funds, have not disbursed any sum yet.

 

Ispat had approached Tata Steel as the latter was focussing on high-margin flat products by setting up its own 1.2 million tonne CRM in Jamshedpur.

Confirming the development a senior Tata Steel official said: "We were approached by Ispat three months back, but we felt that it will not add much value to our operations. Hence, we have turned down that offer." However, Ispat's director-finance Vivek Sett said: "We have no plans to sell the Nagpur unit."

The CRM at the Nagpur unit produced around 260,000 tonne of CR sheets and coils in the 1997-98 fiscal, while its GP\GC unit produced 1.82 lakh tonnes against an installed capacity is of 2.25 lakh tonne.