Posted on 01 Nov 2024
As part of their newly signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in steel, rechargeable battery materials, and renewable energy, South Korea's POSCO Holdings and Indian steel giant JSW Steel will jointly build an integrated steel mill in India, the two companies have announced.
The plant, expected to be established in Odisha, Eastern India, will have an initial production capacity of 5 million tonnes/year with plans for a possible expansion later. Both companies would each contribute half of the investment, Korean media reports say, though the total cost was not estimated.
The MOU signing event took place on October 21 in Mumbai but only announced on Tuesday, Mysteel Global notes.
"This (agreement) also entails collaboration for renewable energy for a state-of-the-art integrated steel plant and for setting up an EV ecosystem in India," local media quote JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal as saying.
In the secondary battery materials sector, the two companies plan to explore joint investments and technology development in the value chain. As for renewable energy, they will also seek partnerships utilizing solar and wind power in India.
In 2005 POSCO had decided to set up an integrated steel plant in Odisha with a $12 billion investment, but finally abandoned the plan in 2017 after repeated setbacks, mainly relating to land acquisition.
The South Korean steelmaker had also agreed to build such a facility with India's Adani Group in 2022 but later changed the partner to the country's top steelmaker, JSW.
Currently, POSCO runs five steel processing plants in north-central India and other locations, and a 1.8 million t/y cold rolling and coating mill in Maharashtra in Western India, supplying cold-rolled sheets to Indian automakers and Korean-invested automakers in the country. The plant processes materials exported from POSCO's plants in South Korea, according to the Korea Economic Journal.
Source:Mysteel Global
