The Ruia group, which now holds controlling stake in the former sick PSU, Jessop & Co, has planned to set up a 1 million tpa greenfield steel plant as part of a backward integration plan.

Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal have been identified as probable locations for the plant that would cost around Rs.2,000 crore.

The backward integration plan will help Jessop & Co expand its activities of producing railway wagons and coaches, ship building and steel girders for bridges and flyovers.

The Ruia group, through its group company, Ruia Coatex, had acquired 72 per cent stake in the then ailing Jessop & Co for Rs.18.18 crore in September 2003, through the PSU disinvestment route.

In February 2005, Jessop acquired the closed foundry division of Mukand in Mumbai, through a special purpose vehicle, Pallavi Manufacturers Pvt Ltd.

Later in April 2005, the Ruia group expressed its interest to acquire Hirakud Cables, a sick aluminium cables and transmission tower manufacturing company owned by the Orissa government. 

Meanwhile, the Ruia group has also decided to sell its flagship company, Ruia Coatex, as it plans to emerge as an engineering conglomerate with Jessop & Co as its flagship. Ruia Coatex, a yarn manufacturing company, has three manufacturing units -- at Ganganagar (West Bengal), Bhiwari (Rajasthan) and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). The Ganganagar unit was shut down a few years ago.  The Ruia group is also engaged in sugar production.

(Note: The Ruia group under the chairmanship of Mr Prahlad Ruia has no business relations with the Essar (Ruia) group.)

Also See:

Precursor to capex programme: Jessop acquires Mukand unit (14-Feb-05)