Given mines, I’ll take Karnataka plant to 20 mt: Sajjan Jindal

Sajjan Jindal, vice chairman and managing director, JSW Steel has said he would set up a 20 million tonne steel plant if given the required mines. Jindal spoke to DNA at the commissioning of the second hot strip mill at JSW’s flagship Vijaynagar steel plant at Bellary. Excerpts:

Karnataka has banned iron ore exports. What’s your take on the issue?
I am in complete agreement to ban the iron ore exports, not only from the state of Karnataka but from the entire country. However, in my opinion, banning exports completely in one go is not the right way to go ahead. I think that the exports should be banned over a period of 5 years with a 20% export cut every year. If India has to produce 200 million tonne of steel by 2020, it is important that a calibrated ban on exports is undertaken.

It’s been 15 years since JSW put up the steel plant in Karnataka, but iron ore mines are still awaited…
Yes, the government has told us that we will be given iron ore mines before everyone else. JSW will be given the priority; however, the government has been saying this for the past 15 years. If given the required iron ore mines, I want to take the Vijayanagar steel plant to 20 million tonne... The plant will reach 10 million tonne by March 2011.

How much iron ore do you need?
At least a 350-400 million tonne iron ore mine.

Coming back to iron ore exports, do you think a ban is the ultimate solution?
In my opinion, the mineral wealth of the state must be used to develop the state and not some other country. Karnataka and Orissa are poor states because they export the iron ore. Have you ever gone inside an iron ore mine and seen the plight of the workers? They are paid pittance. Iron ore should be used to develop the industry and not making money for the mine owner. What the Karnataka chief minister has done is absolutely correct. Government must tell the mine owners that over the next five years either build steel plants or tie up with steelmakers. Exports shouldn’t continue.  

But the mining lobby says they export iron ore fines, which is not used by steelmakers in India…
We at JSW use only fines. SAIL’s Bhilai steel plant uses 70% iron ore fines. It is absolutely incorrect of them to say that steelmakers in India do not use iron ore fines. At our JSW R&D, we are currently working to develop a technology to use 42-65% FE grade iron ore fines.

Do you believe foreign companies are getting preference here?
Foreign companies are getting preference in our country. POSCO is getting more importance than JSW or Tata Steel. Why? I can’t understand. PM’s office gives support to POSCO and asks the Orissa state machinery to allocate mines to them. Have you ever heard them giving support to us? We will fight in the court if there is any discrimination in raw material allocation against us.

What about coking coal?
Apart from the recent coking coal mine acquisition in the US, we are in talks with JFE to jointly source raw material. JSW and JFE will jointly look to develop coking coal. However, the proposal is in its early stages currently.

This reporter was in Bellary at the invitation of JSW Steel.