INDIAN-ORIGIN British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty Steel group has started operations in India with production starting at Adhunik Metaliks and Zion Steel.
The UK-based group, part of Sanjeev Gupta-owned diversified GFG Alliance, acquired Adhunik Metaliks and its arm Zion Steel in February for £46 million.
In a statement Liberty Steel has said that it restarted the first phase of production at Adhunik and Zion Steel after six months of 'intensive preparation'.
Adhunik has an integrated steel plant at Chadrihariharpur near Rourkela in Odisha. The plant has both blast furnace and Electric Arc Furnace steel making capability with 0.5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) capacity, and a 34 MW captive power plant.
Adhunik along with Zion's steel rolling facility has a combined capacity of 400,000 tonne per annum. The sites produce products for automotive, energy, engineering and oil and gas sectors.
According to the company as many as 1,500 local people are employed at the plant now.
"Adhunik is on its way to becoming fully operational. We have shown commitment to industrial communities by retaining and paying local workers as we start up operations and bring Adhunik and Zion works back to life. We aim to integrate the business into Liberty Steel Group in near future," said Sanjeev Gupta, GFG Alliance executive chairman.
Adhunik managing director Uday Gupta said: "The challenges in starting up the plant and machinery was overcome through the indomitable spirit of the Adhunik team working. With this progressive restart, we can now look forward to working in partnership with all stakeholders to take the operations to the next level."
Rachel Reeves