The Hindu Business Line : POSCO begins Indian operations — Indian arm registered with Registrar of Cos

KOREAN steel major Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) has started its Indian subsidiary, POSCO-India Private Ltd, to implement its 12 million tonnes per annum capacity greenfield steel plant project in Orissa.

"POSCO-India Private Ltd has been incorporated with the Registrar of Companies, Orissa, under the Companies Act 1956," Mr Ho-Chan Ryu, senior official of POSCO's India Project Department, said here on Wednesday.

POSCO, while signing a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa Government on June 22 this year, had committed to set up an Indian company by August end.

The new company has started functioning from its office in Bhubaneswar with Mr Soung-Sik Cho, Senior Executive Vice-President of POSCO, holding the additional charge as Managing Director.

Mr Tae-Hyun Jeong has been appointed the Deputy Managing Director of POSCO-India Private Ltd. While Mr Cho is based at the POSCO headquarters in Seoul, Mr Jeong has been stationed in Orissa to control and operate the actual functioning of the company.

The POSCO authorities said a total of about 80 people are being employed to carry out the task of the India operations initially. Of them, 50 Koreans will be based in Korea and India and 30 Indian employees will be recruited within this year.

The first phase of the steel plant project will operate with an authorised capital of $1.2 billion, which will be invested in the company's 3 million tonne capacity plant.

POSCO is also outsourcing to Indian companies - Soil and Penetration Test (SM Consultant), Minor Port Development Plan (CES), Water Supply Plan (WAPCOS), Environmental Impact Analysis (Dasturco and NIO), Township Planning (C.P. Kukreja), Basic Mining Master Plan (Dasturco) and Basic Railway Plan (Rites). Mecon did the site selection study.

Elaborating on POSCO's plans for the project, Mr Jeong said the company's immediate priorities would be resettlement and rehabilitation, mine development and completion of the feasibility report. The detailed study on water, rail, road, electricity and other related issues will be completed by November this year.

"POSCO-India will also do its best to contribute to the regional community and the economic development of the country," Mr Jeong said.

POSCO's Indian steel plant project is the largest foreign direct investment project in the country and is a significant part of the company's strategy to enhance its global competitiveness.

In keeping with the MoU, the company will build a 3-million-tonne capacity steel plant near Paradip during the first phase of its project between 2007 and 2010 and expand the final production volume to 12 million tonnes. The total investment proposed is about $12 billion (Rs 51,000 crore).

Also, to study India's economic trends and growth in sectors such as ship building and construction, the company has opened a branch office of POSCO Research Institute in New Delhi.

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