One of India’s foremost steel companies, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., has announced plans to invest U.S. $2.4 billion to increase capacity over the next six years as recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic boosts steel demand.
“Domestic steel prices have recovered from the lows of the COVID-induced volatility and are increasing spurred by improving demand prospects,” the firm said in its August investor presentation.
The steelmaker will increase its total capacity to 15.9 million tons (MT) by March 2025 from 8.6 MT, it said in an investor presentation recently. According to the statement, the company plans to more than double pellet production capacity to 21 million tons by 2024.
On Monday, in a statement to the stock exchanges, the steel company announced that its board had approved fundraising measures that include issuing non-convertible, senior, unsecured, fixed rate or LIBOR notes worth U.S. $1 billion.
JSPL’s plan includes raising money as part of its long-term goal of becoming debt-free and increasing production capacity to 15.9 MT by FY 2024.
In its Vision 2030 laid out earlier, the steelmaker said it aimed to increase its production capacity to 27 MTPA using clean energy sources. In May this year, the company said it was on the way of cutting down its debt while going for a new capital expenditure cycle.
JSPL intends to expand its production capacity, again at Angul, from 9 MT as of FY 2021. JSPL is mulling a foray into container-making from its Angul facility, starting with a manufacturing capacity of 15,000 containers per year.
Jindal Steel is also setting up a 2.25 MT hot rolled coil plant in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, a southern province. The HRC would mainly target export markets, since the plant is located near Krishnapatnam Port in South India.
In addition, the New Delhi-based company will more than double its pellet production capacity by 2024 to 21 MT, according to news reports.
Source : https://agmetalminer.com/2021/08/31/jindal-steel-to-invest-2-4b-to-boost-capacity-citing-improving-demand-prospects/