ArcelorMittal Nippon to build $13b steel plant in India

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Ltd has received approval from the Odisha state government to set up a $13 billion, 24 million tonnes-a-year steel plant, a doubling of investment and capacity from an initial proposal in March.

The Kendrapara complex will produce steel using the latest green steel-making technology and will also produce high value-added downstream products, the Odisha government’s investment promotion body said in a statement after a meeting chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The project will be completed in phases in seven years, it added.

In March, Patnaik had tweeted that ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel had signed an accord to build a 12 million tonnes-a-year steel plant in the state at an investment of Rs500 billion ($6.6 billion).

This facility will also produce 18.75 million tonnes of cement annually, the statement added.

ArcelorMittal had previously attempted to build a steel plant in the state more than a decade ago but ditched the plan in 2013 due to its failure to get suitable land and necessary permits to mine iron ore, a key raw material.