Mr.Tharoor met the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Minister Industries to brief them over the proposed investment recently.
As the Chairman of the Afras Projects India Private Limited (APIPL), he has proposed to invest Rs.800 crore in the state.
Mr.Tharoor during the meeting with Ashok Kumar Meena, the Managing Director of IPICOL had presented the proposal to set up India’s first ever welded stainless steel and duplex pipe manufacturing facility.
APIPL is the Indian arm of the Dubai based multinational giant, Afras Ltd.
Mr.Tharoor has asked for a 125 acre patch of land in Choudwar, Dhamra or Gopalpur.
According to the proposal Afras will introduce the State of the Art technology from an established European technology provider.
This will be first down stream industry of the steel sector, which will be using the products of the Jindal Stainless Limited.
R Ravi, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Afras Ltd, presented the concept note on the proposed unique project.
At present the company has asked for 50 acres of land and in future to cater the need of the expansion plans, it will be requiring another 75 acres.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pragativadi.
… the new Director of Posco-India, Yong Keun Kim, is however, optimistic about his plans for downstream industries.
… His recent meeting with IPICOL managing director, Ashok K Meena, has unfolded the road map of Posco on downstream and ancillary industries.
Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said that Posco’s greenfield project near Paradip would create enormous opportunities for developing ancillary and downstream units close to the steel plant.
Some of the units that are likely to come up, include automobiles, shipbuilding, fishing vessel, heavy fabrication and downstream heat and coil processing, reveals the document.
There is a vast scope of indirect employment opportunity once the ancillary industries are set up in the area, the document says.
Posco has requested the state government for a piece of land near Paradip to set up the facilities.
A detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared by the company, in which investors from South Korea would join for setting up downstream and ancillary projects.
An 11-member team comprising industrialists from Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is on a three-day visit to Orissa to explore possibilities of investments in ancillary industries. The team on Wednesday visited the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex at Dubri in Jajpur district.
Orissa is now focusing on ancillary units of mega projects that are coming up in the state with a view to further value addition and employment generation.
While the proposed Jindal Stainless Steel Downstream Park (SEZ) at Kalinga Nagar is the focus, the government is also promoting the Choudwar Industrial estate to the visitors. Orissa is keen to have ancillary industries in Rourkela, Sambalpur, Paradip and Dhamra regions in addition to the Somnathpur Industrial Estate in Balasore.
The steel SEZ (JSSL) is to come up on 300 acres near the 1.6 mtpa steel plant project of Jindal Stainless, and will house industries to move up the value chain by churning out specific products for different sectors. Investment in the SEZ is envisaged to be to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore.
A study conducted by JSSL and international consultancy firm CB Richard Elis has pointed out that the precision cold rolling, pipes and tubes, auto components, engineering products, kitchenware and lifestyle products hold much promise.
"Advantages of setting up projects in Orissa are manifold as it is at the core of emerging Markets in eastern India comprising West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and north east", the director industries, Hemanta Sharma, told the visiting industries. It is also the gateway to the Southeast Asian countries in terms of exports, he added.
The state government had lined up a comprehensive package including incentives and concessions to promote ancillary enterprises, Sharma said.
Asserting profitability of the ventures here, CEO of Jindal Stainless SS Virdi said applications of steel are growing faster compared with any metals as per capita consumption (PCC) is on the rise. In India, the PCC is only 1.1 kg compared with 15-20 kg in developed countries.
Stainless steel could shine brighter in India as in their scramble for market share the steel makers want to locate users of steel next to their factories in special economic zones.
Jindal Stainless and Steel Authority of India have plans to capture customers right next to their stainless steel plants.
"We are setting up an SEZ next to our Orissa plant on a 300 acre land which will have shops, which use our steel for making products," pointed out Ratan Jindal, VC & MD, Jindal Stainless.
… the state government signing three fresh MoUs for setting up units, taking the total proposed capacity of output to 75.66 mtpa, involving a total investment of nearly Rs 2,00,000 crore, official sources said.
With this, the number of MoUs for establishment of steel units touched 49, including 11 for mega projects. Besides MoUs with the largest steel maker in the world Arcelor-Mittal and South Korean gaint Posco, the government had signed agreements with domestic firms such as Jindal, Tata Steel and others for mega projects.
All the MoUs were signed during the last six years, they said, adding 26 steel projects had already become partially operational while the mega ones were facing land acquisition problem.
The production capacity so far achieved by these companies was 3.96 mtpa in sponge iron, 0.45 mtpa of pig iron and 3.32 mtpa of steel, besides 308 mw captive power plant.
said the three companies would produce one million tonne of steel per annum.
The companies which signed MoUs are Pradhan Steel and Power Private Limited, Atha Mines Private Limited and Tecton Ispat Private Limited.
While Pradhan Steel proposes to set up a 0.50 mtpa steel plant in over 460 acre land with an investment of Rs 606 crore at Dhurusia in Cuttack district, Atha Mines would set up a 0.25 mtpa capacity unit at an investment of Rs 291.60 crore at Tarkabeda in Dhenkanal district. Tecton Ispat would set up a 0.25 mtpa steel unit over 150 acre of land at an investment of Rs 227.13 crore at Tarkebeda in Dhenkanal district.
The meeting …accepted two out of the eight project proposals.
The meeting decided that the state government would seek necessary environmental clearance from the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) before giving the nod to any proposal for new thermal plants in the Angul-Talcher belt.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, industry secretary Ashok Dalwai said that state government had asked the IBM to make a detailed study on the environmental sustainability of the Angul-Talcher areas.
He said that the meeting, while discussing about the setting up of a number of thermal plants in the state also took note of the searing heat in this industrial belt during summer.
The Committee gave its nod to Jindal Photo Ltd’s proposal to enhance its power production capacity from 1,000 MT to 1,200 MT in its proposed plant at Angul.
The SLSWCC also approved the Well Spun Power and Steel Ltd’s proposal to set up its ore beneficiation and pelletisation plant at Dhamra.
The company aims to produce ductile iron and spiral iron from this plant, for which Rs 1,830 crore would be invested.
The company has asked the state government to arrange 2,000 acres of land.
The state government will scrutinise the land requirement proposal. The company had earlier inked an MoU with the state government to set up a 3-MT plant at Angul.
National Aluminium Company (Nalco), the largest producer and exporter of aluminium in the country, plans to set up an aluminium park at Angul to boost consumption of the metal within the state.
Most of the aluminium produced by the public sector blue chip company, at present, is either exported or sold outside the state for further value addition. Out of the average 30,000 tonnes of aluminium produced per month by Nalco’s smelter at Angul, 28,000 tonnes are dispatched outside the state, with only 2,000 tonnes being consumed in the state.
The proposed aluminium park is expected to increase the metal consumption within the state to at least 20,000 tonnes per month, says CR Pradhan, chairman and managing director of Nalco.
He said both national and international aluminium players would be invited to set up downstream units in the proposed park to facilitate more metal sales within the state. Nalco has approached the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (IIDCO) to acquire about 1,000 acres to be handed over to it for the purpose.
Meanwhile, Nalco’s plan to set up a second smelter plant along with a captive power plant in Orissa depends on the company being allotted additional bauxite mines and coal block for the project. …
Allaying all apprehensions regarding delay in the ongoing expansion project of Nalco, both at Angul and Damanjodi facilities, he said they would be completed within stipulated time.
Ferro Alloys Corporation (FACOR) will invest about Rs 2,500 crore to set up a greenfield steel plant besides two power plants in Orissa.
With a cash outlay of Rs 2,500 crore, the group plans to set up a greenfield stainless steel plant in Orissa, a 45-MW captive coal-fired power plant and a 250-MW coal based independent power plant in Orissa,” CMD FACOR R K Saraf said here.
