State-owned
Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail) plans to set up four steel processing units
(SPUs) in northern and central India to roll thermo-mechanically treated (TMT)
bars. Each unit is proposed to have a production capacity of 100,000
tonnes/year.
Three
units are proposed to be set up at Gwalior, Ujjain and Hoshangabad in the
central state of Madhya Pradesh and the fourth at Lakhimpur in neighbouring
Uttar Pradesh state. Sail intends to action these projects in joint ventures
with strategic partners, who will be selected through an open tender process.
Only domestic firms are eligible to participate. The deadline for submitting
bids is 3 PM Indian standard time on 10 October.
According
to tender documents, Sail proposes to hold a 26% stake in each of the jv and
the selected partner would hold the remaining 74%. Sail also intends to supply
60,000 t/y of billets for each SPU. The jv partner would be required to source
the balance from the market.
Sail
notes that India’s National Steel Policy envisages per capita steel consumption
in rural areas doubling to 4kg by the year 2019-20 from 2kg presently. The
steelmaker reasons that the SPUs would help it tap into rural steel demand by
means of faster product delivery and reduced transportation costs.
Earlier
this month, Sail announced plans to appoint 1,000 dealers to serve the rural
market. The steelmaker also noted it would commission several new production
units in 2012 and that this would increase the availability of Sail’s TMT
rebars in the domestic market by more than 1m t/y.
Leave a Reply