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Enron plans to enter steel trading in India

Rumi Dutta & S Ravindran

The US-based power giant Enron Corp is planning to get into the steel trading business in India. The decision comes at a time when it has been reviewing its India plans and when the global steel industry is in the grip of a recession.

Enron is actively looking out for steel traders in Asian countries like India, China, Thailand, Japan and Korea, steel industry sources said. The company at present is into power, gas, broadband, oil, coal, pulp and paper, credit and equity derivatives businesses.

Enron is seeking to "change the way in which the global steel industry transacts". The company plans to focus on expanding the Asian market besides introducing risk management and financial hedging products in the steel industry. At the same time, to facilitate online business, a network platform is being put in place. However, the Enron spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

The energy giant has put most of its India plans on the backburner except the 2184 mw Dabhol power project. The continuance of the project is under cloud, too, as the Maharashtra government has set up a committee headed by former Union home secretary, Madhav Godbole, to renegotiate the 1,444 mw second phase of the project.

The future of another company, Metropolitan Gas, which ia laying gas pipelines for transporting liquefied natural gas, too, is in doubt. Earlier, Enron had pulled out of its joint venture with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board and Global Tele-Systems to lay an optic fibre network across the board's transmission lines.

Enron Oil and Gas is also planning to exit its operations in the Cambay basin and Panna Mukta oilfields.

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