The Odisha government may offer steel giant Posco the option of a joint venture (JV) with the state-run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) as the Centre and state try to salvage the $12 billion project — the largest FDI in India so far.
Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra yesterday (25 August) held a meeting with Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar, Steel Secretary Rakesh Singh, Odisha Chief Secretary G C Pati and Posco India CMD Gee Woong Sung on the steps that can be taken to save the project, sources said.
“Both Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik do not want Posco to leave India. It was decided during the meeting that Odisha will again talk to the South Korean steel major and look for options that can be leveraged to save the $12 billion project,” they added.
The PMO’s intervention comes against the backdrop of the steel major temporarily dropping plans to set up a 12-mtpa integrated steel plant (ISP) in Jagatsinghpur district in Odisha.
“One of the options available, which Odisha is mulling, is that Posco can either set up the plant as a JV with OMC or OMC can be given iron ore mines and then Posco can have some arrangement with the public sector undertaking for setting the ISP,” sources said.
The Bhubaneswar-headquartered OMC mines minerals like chrome, iron ore and manganese, which caters to the requirements of mineral-based industries such as steel, sponge iron, pig iron, ferro-manganese, ferro-chrome etc.
Besides, the Centre has also told Posco to try other options like forming a JV with PSUs such as SAILBSE for setting up the plant.
The proposed project has been stalled for about a decade due to various regulatory hurdles, including delays in land acquisition and mining leases.
One of the world’s largest steel makers, Posco, in the meantime has joined Uttam Galva group to set up an estimated $3 billion steel plant in Maharashtra — the first Indian facility for the global giant.
It has also signed a pact with Mesco Steel to shift its first Finex plant to Kalinganagar from Pohang in South Korea.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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