JSW Steel looks to increase capacity to 45 MT by 2030

Leading alloy-maker JSW Steel is planning to increase its manufacturing capacity to 40-45 million tonne by 2030 from the present 18 million tonne.

"Today we have 18 mt installed capacity which is 15% of the national steel manufacturing capacity of 128 mt. If the country builds 300 mt capacity by 2030, we would like to plan accordingly to maintain our 15% share, which will be 40-45 mt," JSW

Steel joint managing director & group CFO Seshagiri Rao told PTI.

The national steel policy envisages to increase installed capacity to 300 mt by 2030 from the current 128 mt.

"We have environmental clearances to increase the capacity at the Vijaynagar plant from 12 mt to 16 mt. At Dolvi, we have approvals to double the capacity to 10 mt. This means we have the approval to increase our capacity to 27 mt from the present 18 mt," Rao said.

Claiming that his company has one of the lowest cost per tonne, Rao said, "to set up a greenfield steel project today it costs Rs 6,000-7,000 crore per million tonne. But we spend only almost half of this at Rs 3,000-3,500 crore per mt. So, that is the kind of capex we will require to create an incremental 22 mt capacity."

Steel demand grew 3.5% in fiscal 2017 and JSW expects demand growth to expand 1.2-1.3 times of GDP growth if investments pick up.

This will take demand growth to 9-10%, implying an incremental demand of 9-10 mt per annum.

Commenting on the government seeking suggestions from the industry over anti-dumping duty imposed last year, Rao said the duty generally is a medium term for five years.

"We have made a request to commerce and steel ministries that anti-dumping duty reference price be fixed only for the investigation period 2015-16 as during that period, steel price and cost of production were different than what it is today," Rao said.