JSW to start Ispat's capacity expansion in 2013

Sajjan Jindal-promoted JSW Steel will start the much talked about capacity expansion of its subsidiary Ispat Industries in 2013.
Currently, the company plans to focus on strengthening Ispat’s backward integration by setting up a power plant and a coke oven at the latter’s plant in Dolvi, Maharashtra.

According to Ispat officials, the company is setting up a 110 megawatt (mw) power plant and a 1 million tonne per annum (mtpa) coke oven plant, both of which are expected to be completed in the next one-and-a-half years.

Capacity expansion of steelmaking from 3.3 mtpa to 4 mtpa and setting up of the pellet plant would be taken up after that.
“The capacity addition as well as the pellet plant will come in the second phase. We are now working on de-bottlenecking. In the first phase, work is currently in progress for setting up coke oven and the power plant. If work is completed fast, de-bottlenecking would take about one-and-a-half years,” said B K Singh, Ispat’s executive director in charge of the Dolvi plant.

In fact, the speculated merger of Ispat Industries with JSW Steel is not being contemplated now. “Several shareholders wanted to know whether at all a merger is being planned. From what I get to know from the management, as of now there is no merger (with JSW) under consideration. Your worries on this are completely baseless,” Vinod Kothari, additional director, Ispat, told shareholders during an extraordinary general meeting to effect a change in name of Ispat Industries to JSW Ispat Steel Ltd.

On current operations of Ispat, Singh said supply of surplus pellets was slated to commence from JSW’s Vijayanagar plant from May. It hasn’t started yet, and would happen when the new pellet plant comes up there, he  said. JSW’s 5 mtpa pellet plant is expected to be completed this year.