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Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and two Kerala Government-owned outfits — Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML) — signed an MoU on Thursday for setting up a Rs 2,500-crore joint venture titanium project in the State.
According to a Kerala Government note, the project entails production of titanium sponge and processing it into metal. It envisages titanium metal capacity at a range of 18-40 lakh tonnes a year.
According to a SAIL note, the key raw material — titanium tetrachloride — will be supplied by KMML. In subsequent phases, backward and forward integration would be put in place.
C.S. Verma, Chairman of SAIL, said the company would constitute a dedicated team of officers. “All efforts will be made to ensure timely completion of various activities in relation to the project,” he added.
This will be the another major titanium project in Kerala, after the nation’s first titanium sponge plant was put up at KMML’s Chavara complex in Kerala as a collaboration of KMML, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory in 2011.
Titanium, a rare earth element, is used in various industries including defence and space. India, according to experts, has enormous untapped potential in this premium industrial product and its derivatives.
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