JSW Cement arm plans Rs 1,500-crore capital expenditure in Odisha

Once commissioned, the proposed clinker unit will service JSW Cement's manufacturing facilities across East India and is expected to create around 500 direct and indirect jobs

Shiva Cement Limited, a subsidiary of unlisted JSW Cement, will invest over Rs 1,500 crore in a 1.36-million-tonne (mt) clinker unit project to be set up in Odisha’s Sundergarh district.

The funding of this project will be through a combination of long-term debt and equity, said JSW Cement, which holds a nearly 60 per cent stake in Shiva Cement. The project received an approval during the company’s board meeting held last month, it added.

The scope of work also includes a 1-mt grinding unit, 8-Mw waste heat recovery power plant, 4-mt crushing plants at Dolomite and Limestone mines, a 10-km overland belt conveyor to transport limestone from the mines to the manufacturing plant, and a 12-km railway track up to Sagra station for transportation of finished goods.

The design of the plant incorporates best technologies and will be the most modern and energy-efficient, with waste heat recovery and co-processing unit using alternative fuels. Shiva Cement has already received some of the regulatory and statutory approvals and is on track to obtaining other necessary clearances.

Once commissioned, this clinker unit will service JSW Cement’s manufacturing facilities across east region and is expected to create around 500 direct and indirect job opportunities. This should make Shiva Cement a strategic hub for JSW Cement’s operations in the eastern region of India.

"Shiva Cement’s plan to establish a new clinker unit further reaffirms the JSW group’s commitment to investments in the state (of Odisha). Through this investment, we hope to contribute to the overall economic development of Odisha as well as create new direct and indirect job opportunities. The new clinker unit at Shiva Cement in Odisha will provide a strategic advantage to service the needs of our customers in the region and further strengthen JSW Cement's leadership position in the Green Cement category in India. We expect to commission the clinker unit by the end of next fiscal,” JSW Cement Ltd Managing Director Parth Jindal was quoted as saying in a press release.

Shiva Cement’s clinker project contract has been awarded to Thyssenkrupp Industries India and Larsen & Toubro. While Thyssenkrupp has been contracted to design and supply a clinkerisation unit with a capacity of 4,000 tonnes, Larsen & Toubro has been awarded the contract for civil, mechanical and refractory erection work of the new clinker unit.

For JSW Cement, the new clinker unit being set up by Shiva Cement is part of its strategic road map to increase its capacity from 14 mt at present to 25 mt by 2025, with a special focus on scaling up its presence in the eastern region of India. Along with growing its capacity, JSW Cement is also planning to raise Rs 2,500 crore through an initial public offering by December 2022.