The new company will manufacture high value-added steels for domestic and export markets. An agreement was signed between Carpenter president and chief executive officer (CEO) RW Cardy and Kalyani Steels chairman BN Kalyani at Pune on Thursday.

"The venture is strategically formed to address opportunities in the extremely promising Indian market and to use India's inherent competitive advantage for exports," Cardy said.

The new company's board will have proportional representations with BN Kalyani as the chairman. A sizable part of production is expected to be exported to south-east Asia, the US and the Europe.

Since manufacturing facilities are already in place, the technology supplyfrom Carpenter will result in a relatively shorter gestation period with the production of new product to build up from 1999, according to a release.

Carpenter and Kalyani have established a second joint venture, Kalyani Carpenter Metal Centres Ltd, which is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 1998. This company will open distribution centres in the principal metal consuming areas of the country.

"The joint venture will contribute substantially to greater Indo-US cooperation in the steel manufacturing sector and in the specialty business which so far has been domestically oriented," Kalyani said.

Kalyani Steels specialises in the manufacture of forging quality steel. The company supplies its products to all the forging firms in the country. The Kalyani group is setting up a new manufacturing facility at Hospet, Karnataka to manufacture steel through the blast furnace route.

Carpenter manufacturers more than 400 grades of specialty steels and alloy product including stainless steel, tollsteels, high temperature and electronic alloys in bar. Established in 1889, Carpenter has nine special alloys manufacturing plants in the US and operations in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK. The company's turnover for the year 1997 was $939 million with an employee strength of around 5,900 people.