‘Tatas ready to set up steel park in Odisha’

Bhubaneswar: Tata Steel is ready to invest in a downstream park on 400 acres next to its Kalinganagar steel plant in Jajpur district of Odisha.Its recent in-principle nod for the downstream steel park, adding to commitments made by Jindal Steel and Power, Vedanta Resource, Jindal Stainless and Nalco, is a result of the Odisha government’s push for downstream investment banking on primary metal produced in Odisha.Officials in the state government, told ET, Tata Steel had recently written to the state government conveying its interest in anchoring the proposed downstream park next to its newest greenfield plant currently being ramped up from 3mtpa (million per annum) to an 8mtpa million facility.“We are happy that Tata Steel has also conveyed its agreement to set up an industrial park in Kalinganagar which will provide a significant boost to steel downstream units. We are expecting a formal application from the company soon,” Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary, industries department, government of Odisha, told ET. Tata Steel did not respond to an emailed questionnaire.One of the concerns expressed by the fifteenth Finance Commission, on a recent visit to the state, was why Odisha, which had more than 70% of the country’s minerals, had such a disproportionate and weak contribution in the country’s manufacturing sector? The state government has been on working hard to help address this anomaly, while trying to reduce its dependence on mineral-based earnings.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2srNcqT