Visa Steel eyes value-added steel production with Baosteel

KOLKATA - City-based Visa Steel plans to extend its partnership with China’s Baosteel Resources to make special steel, a top company official said here Wednesday.

VISA Steel is setting up a 100,000 tonne per annum ferro chrome plant in Orissa in joint venture with Baosteel.

“We do not have exclusive tie-up with Bao, but we understand that Bao is interested in investing in value-added steel as well as value-added inputs in India and their preferred vehicle to invest here would be the JV (joint-venture) that we have now,” company chairman Vishambhar Saran said.

Regarding the stainless steel plant at the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Orissa, he said the first phase production of 0.5 million tonnes would start by December.

The company is implementing 1.5 million tonne per annum special and stainless steel plant there.

It has also signed a pact with Chhattisgarh government to set up a 2.5 million-tonne steel plant in Raigarh. The company has acquired 250 acres of the total 1,000 acres required for the project.

“Work on the project is expected to start by end-2010-11,” managing director Vishal Agarwal said.

The total investment for the Chhattisgarh project is Rs.8,000 crore, of which around Rs.2,500 crore will be invested for the first phase.

The company posted a net profit of Rs.47.42 crore for the financial year ended 2009-10 compared to loss of Rs.66.81 crore in 2008-09.

For the January-March quarter of 2009-10, it posted a profit of Rs.16.51 crore compared to a loss of Rs.110.68 crore for the like period in 2008-09.