Steel Authority of India on Monday said it planned to put up four three million tonne manufacturing facilities — one each in Indonesia, Mongolia, South Africa and Oman — at a cumulative investment of $12 billion.
“We have already signed the memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian government and are in constant dialogue with the governments in Mongolia, South Africa and Oman for setting up the 3 mtpa steel plant,'' SAIL Chairman C. S. Verma told reporters on the sidelines of an ICC-organised conference here.
“We are aiming to finalise all the plants in 2011-12. If all the four plants are finalised, then the investment required would be at least $12 billion — $3 billion in each of them,” he said. The proposed investments were likely to be financed in a 80:20 debt-equity ratio and the state-owned company might rope in strategic investors to part finance the equity part. The SAIL Chairman said it would take three years for a plant to go on stream from the day of signing a definitive agreement. The plants would basically cater to the domestic requirement of steel in each respective country.
SAIL, however, will set up the facilities only if the local governments ensure that the requisite raw material and land were made available to the proposed plants. The sooner the identified countries could arrange and ensure the prerequisites, the faster and easier it would be for the Maharatna firm to start working on these projects.
