Japanese companies are keen on investing in Bengal

Bijender Sharma
KOLKATTA---Japanese companies are keen on investing in Bengal. After JFE and Sumitomo Metal, Kobe Steel wants to set up a speciality steel plant in Bengal.Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is in talks with Kobe on the proposed plant in the state.SAIL chairman C.S. Verma today said a detailed project report was being prepared for the venture. “It is likely to be an investment of Rs 5,000 crore,” he said.Land required for the plant will be under 100 acres. SAIL is planning to use excess land within Alloy Steels Plant at Durgapur to build the unit.The capacity of the unit is likely to be 0.5 million tonnes of iron ore nuggets where ferrous content will be nearly 95 per cent.Kobe has proprietary technology to make these nuggets using low-grade iron ore. Moreover, the nuggets can be manufactured without using coking coal, a key steel making raw material that is in short supply in India.“We are keen to join hands with foreign companies who can provide us new technology. This is why we are in talks with Posco and Kobe Steel,” Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh said.Singh and Verma were in Calcutta to participate in a seminar on raw material security for the steel industry organised by the Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India.SAIL officials said the new unit would come up at the Durgapur plant because it could best integrate with the new technology.The nuggets are used in an electric arc furnace, which only the Alloy Steels Plant has within SAIL. Outside Japan, Kobe’s technology has been put to use only in Minnesota, in the US so far.
Japanese companies’ have so far shown a steady interest in Bengal, especially in the steel sector. The world’s fifth largest steel producer, JFE, came to India to forge a joint venture with Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Bengal Steel to build a plant at Salboni.The duo is still in talks even as JFE has invested about a billion in JSW Steel, the holding company of JSW Bengal.Sumitomo Metal Corporation is also keen to partner Bhushan Steel to build a plant near Asansol. However, the project is yet to take off because of non availability of land. Jindal is yet to start work despite having land.Since SAIL has the land and fund, Kobe’s project may take off faster than its other Japanese peers. Bengal has been the beneficiary of one of the biggest Japanese FDIs in the Mitsubishi PTA plant at Haldia.