India NALCO may sign Iran joint venture soon-exec

BHUBANESWAR, India, Sept 17 (Reuters) - India's state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) (NALU.BO) is likely to sign a joint venture agreement for a greenfield aluminium smelter in Iran in the next few months, a company director said on Thursday. NALCO plans to build a 310,000 tonne smelter and a power plant in Iran with Iran's Kerman Development Organisation in a project that would cost it 80 billion rupees ($1.7 billion). "Maybe in a month or two we will go ahead for signing the joint venture agreement with our local partner," B.L. Bagra, NALCO's director of finance, told Reuters. The company had had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kerman in 2007, Bagra said. Another overseas venture in Indonesia for a smelter and power plant was awaiting port and rail concessions by the Indonesia government, Bagra said. NALCO is India's third largest aluminium maker. It produced 361,262 tonnes of aluminium in 2008/09 ended in March. ($1=48.1 rupees) (Editing by John Mair)