Paswan leaves on a 10-day visit to Australia

New Delhi, June 23 (UNI) Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan is leaving today on a 10-day visit to Australia to explore opportunities for meeting growing demand of coking coal in India.

A high-level delegation led by Mr Paswan includes the Chairman of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) Mr S K Roongta, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Steel Mr George Elias and senior officials from the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

The two public sector companies, SAIL and RINL, together import over 15 million tonnes of coking coal in a year, nearly 90 per cent of which comes from Australia.

With the two companies set to double their installed capacity in the next few years and private steel companies also adding to their capacity the issue of raw material, security remains the strategic issue for the Indian steel sector.

The delegation would see first hand opportunities available there for wider and deeper cooperation for ensuring steady supply of coking coal.

The Minister would have discussions with the federal Minister for Industries of Australia Mr Ian McFarlane and ministers in the provincial governments of Western Australia. Western Australia is one of the key outsourcing points for coking coal.

During his stay in Australia, Mr Paswan would have meeting with Chamber of Minerals and Energy at Perth and would also be given presentations by some leading companies like Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

He would visit Illawarra coking coalmines at Wollongong.

The delegation would visit Port Kembla to witness high speed handling of cargo.

Mr Paswan will return to New Delhi on July 2, 2007.

UNI