Essar Steel to infuse Rs 17,760 crore for 6 mtpa mega steel plant in K’taka

Essar Steel has decided to make an investment of Rs 17,760 crore to set up a 6 mtpa mega steel plant at Bagalkot in Karnataka. The state government has granted its approval in this regard.

Essar Steel has asked the Karnataka government to lease an iron ore mine for continuous supply of the raw material. The said plant will be developed in two phase. Initially, in the first phase, the plant would have a 3 mtpa capacity. The company aims to put up a pellet plant, a coke oven plant and a battery in the first phase.

Later the capacity would be doubled to 6 mtpa in the second phase.

The company envisages increasing production capacity to 25 million tonne per annum by 2012. Its products find wide acceptance in highly discerning consumer sectors, such as automotive, white goods, construction, engineering and shipbuilding.

The company has a 5 mtpa sponge iron plant at Hazira in Gujarat, an 8 mtpa beneficiation plant at Bailadilla in Chattisgarh and an 8 mtpa pellet complex in Vishakhapatanam in Andhra Pradesh. This apart it has facilities at Canada (Essar Steel Algoma) and Indonesia (PT Essar Indonesia).

The company is also working upon putting up a 6 mtpa integrated steel plant at Paradeep in Orissa. The project would also be developed in two phases.

Last month, the company clinched mineral mining rights in North Brazil to feed its proposed steel plant in the South Caribbean Trinidad & Tobago.

Also, off late, the company had formed a strategic alliance with Japan-based Kobe Steel to manufacture high grade steel products for the automobile sector. The former will supply resources like slabs and raw materials to Kobe Steel while it will gain operational technology for quality control, pollution check and energy efficiency at its steel works from the Japanese company.