Mumbai: The overseas investment arm of the Essar Group, Essar Global's bid has been short listed along with two other bidders for the acquisition of Canadian steel maker Stelco.

The other two companies in the race are Metinvest of Ukraine and Russian steel maker OAO Severstal.

Stelco was put on the block last month.

Stelco is one of the largest Canadian steel producers with 4,300-odd employees and has two steel making units with 4.8 million tonnes of raw steel production capacity, four steel processing facilities.

Moreover, it owns three iron ore mines which have combined reserves of 480 million tonnes for over 25 years.

Industry experts said Stelco's acquisition would help the Essar Group cater to the North American automotive industry better as more than half of Stelco's shipments are for the automotive industry.

An auto capacity of nearly 3 million vehicles a year is located in the vicinity of Stelco units.

Going by Stelco's stock price, the acquisition could cost over $700 million (Rs2,800 crore).