Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Posco, Asia's third-largest steelmaker, received a $350 million order to build India's biggest blast furnace.

The furnace for Steel Authority of India, the country's biggest steelmaker, will be completed by March 2010, Posco Engineering & Construction Co., a unit of Posco, said in an e- mailed statement today from Seoul.

Steel Authority of India and its competitors are increasing capacity at mills in India, where steel use is forecast to rise 16 percent a year until 2012, or twice as fast as in the past five years, Credit Suisse Group said in July.

The furnace, which will be built 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Calcutta, will have the capacity to produce 2.7 million metric tons of steel a year, Posco Engineering said.

Posco Engineering said last month it plans to sell shares in an initial public offering on the Korea Exchange in the first half of next year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kyunghee Park in Hong Kong kpark3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 19, 2007 21:16 EDT