BS reported that state owned steel maker RINL and power equipment manufacturer BHEL will soon sign an agreement to form a JV for putting up a high end seamless tube mill at Visakhapatnam, entailing over INR 2,000 crore investments.

Mr AP Choudhary CMD of RINL told PTI that "The proposal has already been discussed in the board and will be considered in the next meeting. Hopefully, the joint venture agreement will be shortly signed.”

He added that the shareholding pattern of the joint venture is yet to be finalized, but added that since the mill would be located inside RINL's Visakhapatnam facility, RINL would have a majority stake in the venture.

Mr Choudhary said that "The mill will have 400,000 tonnes per annum seamless tube installed production capacity. Total investment here will be over INR 2,000 crore.”

High end seamless tubes find application in the energy, oil & gas and water sectors among others. The RINL Chief said that Bharat Heavy Electricals will meet its need of seamless tubes from the mill.

He added that "After meeting the requirements of the domestic market, we will also export tubes to destinations like West Asia and others.”

The growing domestic market for seamless tubes has the potential to grow bigger with government's thrust on creating infrastructure.

Mr Choudhary said that once the joint venture agreement is signed between the partners, the entity would start tendering for the plant and machinery. The tendering process is likely to start before the end of the current fiscal.

(Sourced from BS)