International steel giant Ispat Group plans to invest $175 million over the next decade into its recently acquired Sider mills in Algeria. Earlier this month, LNM Holdings, the parent of the Ispat Group, purchased from the Algerian government a 70 percent stake in the country’s largest mill and two subsidiary mines, which it now manages under the commercial name of Ispat Annaba.
The 10-year development plan for the mill allocates $140 million to replacing its equipment in order to boost production capacity, while the outstanding $35 million will be used to modernize its mining technology, Reuters reported. The company targets doubling the mill’s output by 2005, from the current annual 700,000 tons, with a simultaneous increase in mining production to three million tons.
Ispat will continue to employ the 13,000 government-hired workers in the Sider mill, as well as in the Ouenza and Boukhadra iron ore mines, for a minimum of four years. Ispat will pay the Algerian government $150 million for its assets and an unstipulated amount of interest over the next decade, stated The North African Journal.
Founded in 1976 by Indian tycoon Laxmi Mittal, the Ispat group is a European-based steel manufacturer. It is the world's eighth largest steel maker with a network of factories in seven countries. — (menareport.com)
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