Kobe Steel of Japan and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) sign MOU for Comprehensive Strategic Collaboration

5-Dec-2010
Japan’s biggest steel producer Kobe Steel and Indian public sector company, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for comprehensive strategic collaboration covering technologies, projects and other areas. The MOU was signed by Mr. Hiroshi Sato of Kobe Steel and Mr. C. S. Verma of SAIL in the presence of Mr. P. K. Misra, Secretary (Steel) Government of India, and senior officials from Kobe Steel and SAIL on November 30, 2010 in Tokyo.

With India's steel industry and steel-related business showing remarkable growth and promising development for the future, Kobe Steel and SAIL intend to build a relationship of mutual benefit under the MOU. Both companies plan to form teams that will carry out collaborative work to lead to actual projects.

Kobe Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) have already begun a feasibility study for a joint venture that utilizes Kobe Steel's ITmk3^® iron-making process. With reference to finished products, specific projects / studies will be undertaken to explore the possibility of producing high value products, such as

(1) Products for automobile,

(2) Products for nuclear power plants and conventional power plants such as forged material and tubing material,

(3) Special alloy steel and bars, and

(4) Stainless steel tube and/or any other product mutually agreed to between Kobe Steel and SAIL.

If Kobe Steel and / or SAIL have contractual agreements with other companies, the items covered under such agreements would not be considered in the MOU. It has been learnt that the companies are already working together to set up a 0.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant at SAIL’s Durgapur Alloy Steel unit using Kobe’s patented ITmk3 technology and are currently doing a feasibility study to freeze the finer details of setting up the plant. Under the ITmk3 technology, unlike traditional steel manufacturing process which uses iron ore lumps, SAIL will be using iron ore fines. This process is less pollutant and uses a raw material which is otherwise wasted at the mouth of the iron ore mines. In fact, SAIL also has a JV with South Korea’s steel giant POSCO for a similar technology called ‘Finex’.

Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) is currently India’s biggest public sector steel company with an annualized capacity of 14 mtpa. The company has earmarked an investment of 600 billion INR for expansion and modernization of its plants and up its capacity to 23 mtpa by 2012. Kobe Steel, Japan has world-class technologies for producing high value-added steel products, but also raw material processing and iron unit production including pellets, direct reduced iron and the ITmk3^® iron making process.

Source - http://www.kobelco.com/