A special purpose vehicle (SPV), recently formed by five central public sector units (PSUs) to scout coking coal mines abroad, may take private companies as partners in future.
?Right now we don?t want to take private companies as partners, but we are open to the idea,? Union minister for steel Ram Vilas Paswan said here on Friday.
Five PSUs ?Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Coal India Ltd (CIL), Rastriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC)?have recently formed a SPV for acquisition of coal mines abroad. The SPV has already started exploring possibility of such acquisition offshore, following a special permission by the Union Cabinet.
SAIL, of its own, is exploring possibility of acquiring iron ore and coking coal mines in India and abroad.
?We are looking for partners to firm up joint ventures to acquire mines in the country as well as off shore,? said Paswan. SAIL is working out a JVC with Tata Steel for coking coal, he added. The minister, however, clarified that there will be no joint venture for the existing iron ore, coking coal and other mines of SAIL.
Paswan was here to lay the foundation for modernisation and expansion programme of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).
With the completion of the Rs 9,000 crore expansion programme by 2010, the capacity of RSP will increase to 4.5 mtpa from the present 2 mtpa.
RSP managing director BN Singh said that the MECON has been assigned to prepare a composite project feasibility report (CPFR). According to him, RSP is going in for a new 4.3 metre wide plate mill with a capacity of 1.8 million tonne per annum to meet the increasing demand for high-end products. A new plant to produce 1,80,000 tonne of CRNO steel in Silicon Steel Mill is coming up under this modernisation package.