Steel
Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Tata Steel Limited
(Tata Steel) signed an agreement at New Delhi today to
establish a 50:50 joint venture company (JVC) for coal
mining in India. The joint venture agreement was signed
by Mr. S.K. Roongta, Chairman, SAIL, and Mr. B.
Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel in the
presence of other senior executives from both companies.
The JVC will identify, acquire and develop coal blocks
in India. Four suitable medium coking coal blocks in the
State of Jharkhand with reserves of around 600 million
tonnes are under evaluation for this purpose by a joint
working group of SAIL and Tata Steel. On allotment of
the blocks, the JVC will develop and carry out mining
operations for the captive use by SAIL and Tata Steel.
Both the companies are expanding their steel making
capacities and require secure sources of key raw
material inputs like coking coal. At
the signing ceremony, Mr. Roongta said: "As India's
steel industry enters a high and sustainable growth
phase, raw material availability has assumed critical
importance. In order to ensure security of coking coal
supplies, it is imperative to augment indigenous coking
coal availability. With both SAIL and Tata Steel having
distinct strengths in coal mining, this JVC will
generate synergy to ensure security of coking coal
supplies for both partners. " On
his part, Mr. Muthuraman stated: "India has very
limited reserves of hard and semi soft coking coal. With
the Indian steel industry poised for a robust growth, it
is imperative for us to utilise this scarce resource in
the best possible manner. Both SAIL and Tata Steel have
unique strengths and capabilities and we see a strong
case to synergise these complementary strengths through
this joint venture." About
SAIL Steel Authority of India
Limited (SAIL) is India's leading steel producer with a
turnover of over Rs. 39,000 crore. A fully integrated
iron & steel maker, it is ranked among the top five
profit making companies in India. SAIL manufactures and
sells a broad range of steel products, including
hot/cold rolled sheets/coils, galvanised sheets,
electrical sheets, structurals, railway products,
plates, bars & rods, stainless steel and other alloy
steels. SAIL produces iron & steel at five integrated
plants and three special steel plants, located
principally in the eastern and central regions of India
and situated close to domestic sources of raw materials,
including the company's captive iron ore, limestone and
dolomite mines. For further information, please visit
www.sail.co.in.
About Tata Steel Established
in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel
company, Tata Steel in 2006 on a combined basis is the
world's sixth largest steel producer in terms of actual
crude steel production with geographic footprints in
India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent
acquisition of Corus Limited, the combined enterprise
has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of
around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700
employees across the four continents.
The Company is undertaking an offer on a rights basis of its equity shares and cumulative convertible preference shares which has closed on 22nd December 2007. The Letter of Offer is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in
and the respective websites of the BRLMs at www.jmfinancial.in, www.citibank.co.in
and www.dspml.com.
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