BOC India wins contract from JSW Steel's Bellary plant

Kolkata: BOC India Limited (BOCI) has entered into a long-term contract to supply gases for JSW Steel Limited's (JSW) expansion programme underway at Bellary, Karnataka. JSW Steel, formerly Jindal Vijayanager Steel Limited, is nearly doubling its capacity to 7 million tonnes a year.

BOCI is a subsidiary of the £4.6 billion The BOC Group Plc, among the world's largest industrial gases companies.

Under the new contract, BOCI will supply JSW Steel over 3,000 tonnes per day of gaseous oxygen, nitrogen and argon from a custom-built air separation unit (ASU). To meet this requirement BOCI will set up one of the largest build-and-operate on-site air separation plants in the country. The ASU will meet all of JSW Steel's requirements for gases and additionally will produce liquid products to meet the growing demand from customers in southern India.

Speaking on the occasion Dr BN Singh, joint managing director and CEO, JSW Steel Limited said, "BOC was able to provide the best technical solution for our gases requirement; this along with their reputation for quality and reliability was key in our selection of BOC to support our expansion programme."

The ASU, envisaged to be one of BOC's largest in Asia, is expected to be commissioned in 2008 in time to meet the requirements at JSW Steel.

"With the gases requirement of nearly 4500 MTPD from the expansion alone, JSW will become BOCI's largest customer in India," said ER Raj Narayanan, managing director, BOC India Limited.

This contract follows an earlier agreement signed last year with JSW Steel to supply its Bellary site with around 1,400 tonnes of oxygen and nitrogen daily. An ASU is currently under construction by a BOC joint venture, with commercial production expected to begin later this year. In addition to its major air separation plants in Jamshedpur, Tarapur and Taloja, BOCI has recently commissioned its latest merchant ASU in Hyderabad.

In the fiscal year ending 31st March 2006, BOC India registered its highest ever turnover of Rs 560.93 crore, recording a growth of 32 per cent over the previous year. Net profit after tax increased by 181 per cent from Rs 27.97 crore to Rs 78.63crore. The year also witnessed several product launches and commissioning of plants across the country.

JSW Steel Ltd, part of the OP Jindal Group, is one of India's largest steel manufacturers and is a fully integrated steel maker with facilities from mining of iron ore to colour-coated steel. Apart from its Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka the company has plants at Tarapur and Vasind in Maharashtra.