New Delhi: The proposed joint venture between state-owned SAIL and ArcelorMittal to set up a Rs 5,000 crore auto-grade steel plant may be finalised this month, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said today.
"May is the last month to click or not to click. We may clinche this deal," Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh told reporters here when asked about the joint venture between SAIL and ArcelorMittal.
He said the government is in touch with SAIL on "all kinds of development" in this matter. In March, Singh had said that SAIL and ArcelorMittal would resolve differences over setting up of this plant.
"May-end is the deadline and before that we think some solution should come up... Some problem is solved. Good news should come," Singh had said then. ArcelorMittal and SAIL inked a pact in May 2015 to explore the possibility of setting up an automotive steel manufacturing unit under a JV arrangement.
The proposed JV will construct world-class facilities that will offer technologically advanced steel products for India?s rapidly growing automotive sector. The hot-rolled input products for the proposed facility will be supplied by SAIL’s new hot strip mill in Rourkela, Odisha, thus making the entire value chain indigenous.
The 'Maharatna' firm does not produce automotive steel and the JV will help it expand its product portfolio. The Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal said India is forecast to become the world?s third-largest automobile manufacturing nation by 2026.
In an investor presentation in June 2015, the company had said the proposed steel plant will come up at a major auto cluster in India. The country has four major auto clusters ?- Pune-Chakan belt in Maharashtra; on the outskirts of Chennai in Tamil Nadu; Sanad in Gujarat and Gurgaon-Neemrana belt that covers two states, Haryana and Rajasthan.
