Setting up of RF-India JV to enhance bilateral cooperation - minister.

10/12 Tass 264

NEW DELHI, December 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Creation of a Russia-Indian
joint steel works will significantly strengthen bilateral cooperation in
the metallurgical sphere, Indian Minister of Steel Virbhadra Singh said on
Friday during a ceremony of signing a first-ever agreement on joint
project between Russia's leading steel maker Severstal and India's
National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).
The Russian-Indian joint steel works will be built in India's State of
Karnataka. The sides, Severstal and NMDC, will take part in the project on
a parity principle - each of the companies will hold a 50-percent stake in
the joint venture.
Initially, the plant will produce two million tonnes of steel a year.
In the future, the annual capacity of the steel works will go up to five
million tonnes. The construction of the plant will be launched at the end
of 2011.
The memorandum of mutual understanding on the setting up of a joint
venture was signed between Severstal and NMDC in New Delhi earlier in the
day. Severstal CEO Alexei Mordashov and NMDC Chairman and Managing
Director Rana Som put their signatures to the document.
According to the Indian Minister, Russia and India have maintained
close interaction in the metallurgical sector since the 1960s.
Back then, the metallurgical plants were built and commissioned in
India with the USSR assistance. Minister Singh said that he totally
approved the initiative to set up a joint venture of the companies of
Severstal and NMDC, which would make it possible to strengthen
Russian-Indian interaction.
The Indian minister stressed that the first agreement on the setting
up of the joint steel works was signed on the eve of Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev's visit to India, which gives a special importance to the
event.
-0-usn/yer