A unit of POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steel maker, said on Thursday that it had won a $350 million order to build India's biggest blast furnace from state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd.

The furnace, which will be located north of Kolkata, will have the capacity to produce 2.7 million tonnes of steel a year, POSCO Engineering & Construction Co said in a statement.

Construction would be complete by March 2010, it said.

A spokesman for SAIL, the country's largest steel producer, said the furnace would have a capacity of 4,060 cubic metres.

SAIL produces 14 million tonnes of steel annually, 30 percent of the country's production.

Last month, SAIL announced a partnership with the Korean firm.

POSCO plans to build a $12 billion steel complex in Orissa, which would be India's largest foreign direct investment project.

India