Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's current visit to India would give birth to a slew of Indo-Russian business collaborations. But, two major joint venture (JV) projects planned by Russian companies in India's rich mineral sector still remain just on paper, even after many years of planning and signing of cooperation agreements.
The first one was an integrated chemical and metallurgical complex to produce titanium dioxide and other titanium products in Orissa, with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. The partners decided to part ways a few months earlier, mainly over differences on land allotment. The JV was mooted three years earlier, between Russia’s two state-run agencies, Vnesheconombank or the Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs and JSC Technochim Holding, and Saraf Agencies, a Kolkata-based company.
Another major project between Russia's VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation, the world's largest producer of titanium, with the Kerala government for a JV to process and smelt titanium, has also failed to take off. The ideas was to set up a unit with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes for titanium sponge, to supply aviation metal to Hindustan Aeronautics, with the raw material, titanium tetrachloride, procured from the Kerala government-owned Kerala Minerals and Mining Ltd (KMML).
The Russian company, controlled by state-owned arms exporter RosoboronExport (ROE), was keen on the project and had inked an MoU with the state government in May 2007 for the manufacture of titanium sponge, titanium metal, titanium alloys and other titanium-based products.
"Two years ago, we had received a proposal from the Kerala government to supply raw material for a project planned by Avimsa in India. But, thereafter, we have not received any communication from the ministry of industries", said C J George, executive director of KMML.
Sources said the state government did not expedite the project as there were concerns and agitation in Kerala in the past on the sensitive issue of large-scale extraction of a key and scarce natural resource like titanium. There are huge deposits of mineral sands in the coastal areas of Kerala, in the Chavara area of Kollam district, with deposits to the tune of 127 million tonnes.
Elamaram Kareem, the state’s industries minister, was not available for comment, despite repeated calls.
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Sources said Titanium Products Private Ltd. (TPPL), the joint venture in Orissa, was a point of discussion between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Putin during their earlier interactions.
The partners had decided to pursue the project on their own in September last year following their differences, mainly over allotment of land. The project was to come up over 600 acres.
Sources said the Indian partner, Saraf Agencies, which has 45 per cent stake in the project, was planning to pursue this on its own. Similarly, Vnesheconombank which had 51 per cent stake and another Russian company, Tekhnokhim Holding, which had four per cent in the venture, were also planning to pursue the project, in association with the state government, said sources.
Sources added the JV, which was to supply 30,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide and up to 45,000 tons of titanium slag a year, was planned to use India's Soviet-era rupee debt to finance joint projects in India.