Indian Railways invites on December 22 an international tender for 487,000 tonnes of heavy steel rails and bidders for that tender are revealed.

From Europe, they are Voestalpine of Austria, British Steel (former Tata Steel UK) of the UK and ArcelorMittal of France. From Russia, they are Evraz Group and Mechel and from Japan, they are Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and JFE Steel.

From China, Anshan Iron & Steel is expected to make a bid.

From India, JSPL will participate in the tender. They are 9 companies in total. They attended a briefing session on the tender held by Indian Railways.

Meantime, as an electronic bidding system is introduced, a source is observing that new companies other than above may also make bids.

Indian Railways’ pre-notice quantity was 718,000 tonnes. However, the formal tender quantity is decreased to 487,000 tonnes. The reason of a large decrease in quantity is unknown.