Press Trust of India / New Delhi Aug 21, 2009, 13:59 IST
To cash in on the rise in demand for its products, JSW Steel plans to hike the annual capacity of its mills in the US to 30 per cent by the end of the current fiscal.
The country's largest private steel maker by domestic capacity had in May trimmed production of the pipes and plate-making mills in Texas to 20 per cent of their capacities citing a slump in demand amid the economic crisis.
"We want to increase the annual production capacity of the two US mills to 30 per cent by the end of 2009-10," JSW Steel Joint Managing Director & Group CFO M V S Seshagiri Rao told reporters in an interview.
The mills have an installed capacity to produce 1.2 million tonnes of plates and 0.5 million tonnes of pipes annually.
"We see an improvement in demand, especially for our plates picking up from Asia, West Asia and North America. We expect an improvement in our pipe segment as well," he added.
The steel major has deferred the plans to increase its pipe-making capacity by 0.5 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes per annum on account of the meltdown.
The US arm of JSW Steel had in November 2007 bought the mills, which produce plates and pipes, from Jindal United Steel, SAW Pipes USA and Jindal Enterprises for $810 million.
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