Jindal Stainless, Bhushan Steel put expansion plans on hold

Jindal Stainless is putting its phase three and four expansion plans at Orissa on hold, owing to the financial market crisis. Arvind Parekh, director for strategy and business development, Jindal Stainless, said that the company had initiated negotiations for the third and fourth phases of expansion but had now decided to defer the discussions. The expansion would have doubled the power and stainless steel capacity.

At present, the power capacity is 250MW and stainless steel 800,000 tonne. Parekh said the investment would have been Rs 2,000-3,000 crore and would have been largely raised through debts.

Bhushan Steel MD Neeraj Singal said, "We will push back our Bengal project by about six-nine months in the light of Singur and the financial market. We were supposed to start the project in April 2009 but will postpone now, though land acquisition is underway. The total investment in the project is Rs 8,000 crore."