By Silvia Antonioli
NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) – India’s Jindal Steel Power
Ltd is looking for alternative coal and iron ore
projects following a disagreement with Bolivia over power
supplies for it $2.1 billion venture in the country, the
company’s top executive told Reuters on Wednesday.
Chairman and managing director Naveen Jindal said the
company is now looking elsewhere in South America, as well as in
Africa and Australia.
Jindal Steel has given Bolivia notice it is making plans to
scrap its iron ore and steel investment in the country because
the government had not met contract terms to supply natural gas
for the project.
“For the last five years we were so focused on Bolivia that
we stopped looking as well, but now we are looking elsewhere. We
know we can make it happen elsewhere,” Jindal said in an
interview on the sidelines of the AMM Steel Success Strategies
conference.
The search is also part of the company’s plan to raise its
self-sufficiency in raw materials to 80 percent to 90 percent by
2015 from 70 percent currently.
The project in Bolivia – the country’s single largest
foreign investment – will be scrapped unless the government
offers more support and accepts a smaller version of the
original venture due to smaller than expected gas availability.
“If they respond to that favorably, then we can talk. We are
keen to do the project, but on fair terms, Jindal said. “So if
they offer one fourth of the amount of gas which they had
promised before, they have to realize that the whole project has
to be reconfigured.”
Continued…
