Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 15, 2015 : Mesco Steel will invest Rs 1,000 crore for revamp and expansion of Maithan Ispat, a company that it acquired in March last in a debt equity deal of Rs 1,160 crore.

The Company will take up the expansion work in two phases and will be completed in two years. Mesci chairman emeritus, J K Singh, chairman and managing director, Rita Singh and finance director, Natasha Sinha on Wednesday gave their nod to the expansion and revamp plan, a company release said here.

“In the first phase, we will invest Rs 300 crore. A consortium of nine banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) has approved a loan of Rs 170 crore while Mesco will invest Rs 130 crore as equity. In the first phase, we will put up an electric arc furnace [EAF] of 50 ton, a billet castor of the same capacity and a rolling mill. The second phase expansion would cost Rs 700 crore that would be raised from internal accruals and credit from equipment suppliers,” said J K Singh, chairman emeritus of Mesco Steel.

Besides, a rolling mill for TMT bars of 500 Fe grade will also be commissioned. In the second phase, capacity of the existing power plant of 30 MW will be raised to 90 MW to meet the additional power requirements. Two DRI kilns of 500 ton per day capacity will also be added to increase the availability of metallics. The first unit of EAF together with TMT rolling mill is scheduled to be commissioned in one year.

It may be noted that Maithan Ispat Ltd has a heavy section mill, with existing capacity of 0.80 million ton per annum (mtpa), which is expandable to one mtpa. In order to meet the shortage of metallics, beam blanks will also be imported.

Singh said the company plans to produce saleable steel consisting of 0.40 MTPA of the 500 Fe grade TMT bars and 0.80 MTPA of Heavy Sections from this Plant. A refining facility for producing purest form of hot metal will also be set up and pig iron from MISL plant will be used for refining.