JSW Steel to invest over 80000 crores for new facilities

Bangalore, Jun 30: The JSW Steel Limited,, the second largest Steel producer in private sector in India, will invest over Rs 80000 crores for its two proposed steel plants at Jharkhand and West Bengal respectively, Mr Y S S Rao, CEO and Joint Managing Director of the company said here on Monday, June 30.

Speaking to newspersons here today Mr Rao said that the five billion US dollar steel company having its plants in Salem (Tamil Nadu) and Vijayanagar (Karnataka) also has plans to set up two new facilities of 10 million tonne capacities at West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively.Mr Rao said that the required land had been acquired for the West Bengal plant while it is under progress in Jharkhand. The company also in the process of getting mining security for the proposed new facilities. He said that in Jharkhand there was some problem in getting land to set up plant while Iron Ore and Coal ore has been already assured.

He said that company's steel plants in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu together produce around 4.8 million tonnes of steel per annum and by mid 2008 the capacity would increase to around eight million per annum.

With steel plants coming up in West Bengal and Jharkhand, JSW Steel aims to produce 32 million tonnes of steel by 2020.

He said that having visualized rich potential for domestic steel market, the company was also looking out for iron-ore security. The company has acquired mining blocks in Chile, Mozambique and other countries and had earmarked Rs 1000 crore for the same.

Stating that compare to world per capita consumption of steel which stood at 180 KG, the per capita consumption in India is lowest with just 50 KG, Mr Rao said that with the increase in GDP growth the per capita steel consumption is also expected to go high and offer good potential for expansion.

Replying to questions Mr Rao said that due to union government's directive in cutting down the steel prices, which were slashed down 15 to 20 per cent had a negative impact over steel companies margin.

"JSW Steel has suffered about 400 to 500 crores and expressed confidence that the price regulation will be restricted to August this year only".

He said that over the years the group has diversified interest in Steel, Energy, Cement, Aluminum, Minerals, infrastructure and Logistics and IT. JSW Steel Limited has the largest galvanizing production capacity in the country and is the largest exporter of galvanized products with presence in over 74 countries across five continents.

UNI