Tata Steel signs JV with West Bengal body
Wednesday, 12 January 2005, 20:30 IST
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KOLKATA: Tata Steel, India's largest private sector steel maker, Wednesday entered into an agreement with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corp (WBIDC) to set up a joint venture. The joint venture, Hooghly Met Coke and Power Company Ltd., proposes to set up a merchant coke oven plant at Haldia with a capacity of 0.8 million tonnes of coke annually at the completion of phase one. Hooghly Met Coke will also generate 60 MW of electricity by utilising the "sensible heat of the hot flue gas" from the coke oven plant, said B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel. The power generated by the joint venture company will be sold to the West Bengal State Electricity Board, Muthuraman told mediapersons on the sidelines of a business conference here. The order for the machinery and equipment will be placed later this year, he said, adding the first phase of the project was likely to be commissioned within two years. The total land requirement for the project will be around 200 acres. "The project is intended for supplying of high quality metallurgical coke to international as well as domestic customers. It will also cater to the requirement of Tata Steel," said Muthuraman. The entire coking coal requirement for the project will be imported from countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US, Poland and Indonesia. The projected cost of phase one of the project has been pegged at around 7 billion, which is likely to be funded through a mix of debt and equity.
Source: IANS
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