SME Times News Bureau | 11 Jul, 2012
largest steel maker,
Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Japan's Kobe Steel Tuesday signed a
memorandum of agreement (MoU) for setting up a 0.5 million tonnes per annum
iron nugget plant at West Bengal's Durgapur, a statement said Tuesday.
The proposed Rs. 15 billion project at the Maharatna steel major's Alloy Steels
Plant in Durgapur will be set up using Kobe's patented ITmK3 technology.
This will be the second biggest Japanese foreign direct investment(FDI) in West
Bengal after Mitsubishi Chemicals' MCC PTA project in Haldia.
According to a release, the agreement was signed by SAIL Chairman C.S.
Verma and Kobe Steel president and CEO N. Sato at the Japanese steel giant's
headquarters in Tokyo.
As per the agreement, SAIL and Kobe Steel will be entitled to equal share of
production from the plant for captive use. A joint venture company, SAILKobe
Iron India Pvt. Ltd. in which the two steel makers hold equal equity, has
already been incorporated.
Speaking on the occasion, Verma said with this joint venture with Kobe, SAIL
was going to achieve the twin objectives of bringing in latest technology to
the country and also adopting environment-friendly processes.
"This is the first step of our collaboration with Kobe which could extend
to other areas in future," he added.
ITMk3 stands for 'iron making technology mark three'. This is a proprietary technology
of Kobe for producing a premium quality pig iron (nuggets).