New Delhi: Even if brownfield expansions, including operationalising existing mines, remain a focus, JSW Steel selectively bids for iron ore and coking coal mines to ensure raw material security. According to a top executive, the Sajjan Jindal-led corporation also aims to lower operating costs across all of its facilities, while expansion plans for 37 MTPA are proceeding as planned.
“We want to ensure raw material security, so we are first looking at operationalizing our recently won iron ore mines. We run six more mines now, two each in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bihar. We expect to operationalize these in a year, adding to our raw material security and enabling capacity expansion,” JSW Steel Joint MD & CEO Jayant Acharya told in an interview. JSW Steel acquired six iron ore mines and two coking coal mines through public auctions in the year 2023.
When possibilities occur, the company will bid on iron ore mines if they add value and strategically complement its current operations. By FY25 and FY26, the company would also operationalize the majority of its coking coal mines in India.
“This will give us one million tonne of additional coking coal, while we might also look at coking coal mines that might come up for bidding in India, Australia, Canada or other places. We continue to look at them and if they make strategic sense, we will acquire them,” he added.
The National Steel and Agro Industries (NSAIL) acquisition by JSW Steel has been finalized, and integration is now underway. While JSW Ispat Special Products (formerly Monnet Ispat & Energy) merger and Vardhman Industries and Bhushan Power & Steel (BPSL) merger have both already been closed, the latter is anticipated to happen this quarter.
Further, its expansion plans of 37 MTPA by FY25 are on track. The firm had earlier earmarked `18,800 crore as capex for FY24, primarily for completing its 5 MTPA brownfield expansion at Vijayanagar and phase-II ramp-up of capacity at BPSL to 5 MTPA from 3.5 MTPA. It had also set a Rs 2,000-crore capex for global operations.
“All the capex plans are on track,” Acharya added. The company plans to install 1,000 MW of renewable energy in Vijaynagar this year and an additional 225 MW by FY25.
He claimed that all approvals are in place for the production of Cold Rolled Grain Oriented Electrical Steel (CRGO) products in India, for which the business had previously partnered with Japan’s JFE Steel. According to him, the project, which is based in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, should finish in approximately three years.
