By IANS
New Delhi : Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu Oyj plans to invest 30 million euros (Rs.1.65 billion) over a period of two years to build a service centre in India, the firm said Sunday.
“The service centre is scheduled to be in operation in the first half of 2009, at an investment cost of some euro 30 million,” Juha Rantanen, CEO of Outokumpu, said in a statement.
“The new service centre, with an annual capacity to stock and process some 50,000 tonnes of stainless steel coil, will significantly complement the services that Outokumpu’s Indian sales office has been providing to Indian customers,” Rantanen added.
The $7 billion-firm has, however, not yet decided on the location but it plans to establish the centre near the ports of JNPT and Taloja in Maharashtra.
The service centre would process materials locally for end-users.
The company is also planning to set up a cold-rolled steel mill at an expenditure of “several hundreds of million euros” for which it is yet to conduct “technical and financial feasibility studies”.
Outokumpu has two sales offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.