NRI steel baron L N Mittal-run ArcelorMittal and China's Valin Group will fund a new 4.4 million tonnes strip mill and a 2 million tonnes cold rolled steel mill of Lianyuan Steel, through a JV company Valin Steel Tube and Wire in which the two jointly hold a 88.3 per cent stake company.

The new hot mill project is expected to receive approval from the National Development and Reform Commission within the next few months and the mill could be commissioned as early as July 2009, Steel Business Briefing reports quoting a Lianyuan Steel official.

The new cold mill is scheduled to come on stream around 2010, as a downstream facility serviced by the new hot mill. Output from the two mills would mostly target the automotive sector and the Cold rolled mill may produce 200,000 tonnes per annum of NGO silicon steel.

The Valin Group and ArcelorMittal will directly invest in the two mills, SBB said quoting another Lianyuan Steel official. However, the official refused to disclose the investment figure, saying that the Valin Group will share a major portion of the planned outlay, it said.

ArcelorMittal holds a 29.48 per cent stake in Valin Steel Tube & Wire, while the Valin Group holds 30.29 per cent.

Currently, Lianyuan Steel operates a 2.4 miliion tonne hot strip mill, a 1.5 million tonne cold rolled mill, a 300,000-tonne HDG line as well as a 2 million tonne long product capacity, SBB added.

The Mittal Steel-Arcelor saga