Vizag Steel, Manganese Ore India set up JV

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and Manganese Ore India Limited (MOIL) have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture company "" Rastriya Ispat Nigam Manganese Ore India Limited (RINMOI Limited) "" to produce ferro alloys.

The joint venture company with 50:50 equity participation is expected to go into production in early second quarter of 2007.

The manufacturing facility would be located close to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in view of locational advantage and would have a manufacturing capacity of approximately 60,000 tonnes per year in the first phase. The project cost is expected to be around Rs 80 crore. The company would market ferro alloy under its own brand name by second half of 2007.

The joint venture project is expected to de-bottleneck the problems currently faced by VSP in getting its ferro alloy requirement on a continuous basis, according to a press release.

Y Siva Sagar Rao, chairman and managing director of VSP, and K L Mehrotra, chairman and managing director of MOIL, signed the MoU on Wednesday.