Essar plans joint venture with Kobe Steel to produce auto grade steel
17 Jan 2011
Essar Steel will soon upgrade its current partnership with Japan's Kobe Steel into a joint venture for producing auto grade steel at its plant at Hazira in Gujarat.
"We are looking at adding it to Hazira. We have a time-frame of one year for converting the MoU to joint venture with Kobe,'' Essar Steel CEO Malay Mukherjee said on the sidelines of the Global Steel Summit 2011.
Essar Steel, he said, is also in the process of acquiring a one million-tonne per annum plant in Zimbabwe, as part of a revival plan for the African steel company.
"We are the preferred bidder for Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) and are working on the sale and purchase agreement for the one million tonne plant," he said, adding, "We are looking at how to get the plant operational."
Ruias-led Essar Steel has the backing of the Zimbabwe government for acquiring a majority stake in ZISCO, the country's largest steel company so far.
Essar Steel is also planning to set up a captive power plant at the plant site, he said.
Essar Steel, meanwhile. is undertaking a capacity expansion plan that would see its annual production increase to 10 million tonnes from the current 6 million tonnes, Mukherjee said.