JSW Steel commissions Cold Rolling Mill in Karnataka

Company has invested Rs 4,500 cr to set up the 2.3 mn tonne per annum plant to manufacture high-end auto-grade steel, first time in India

JSW Steel has taken one more step forward in its journey of diversification by commissioning the first phase of 2.3 million tonne per annum (MTPA) Cold Rolling Mill-2 at Toranagallu in Karnataka’s Bellary district. The company has invested Rs 4,500 crore to set up the plant in technical collaboration with Japan’s JFE Steel.

The CRM-1 is already operational since 8 years and manufactures special steel for under body parts in passenger cars.

With this, the company aims to capture a sizeable portion of auto-grade steel market in India. Currently, Indian automobile industry imports about 1 million tonnes of high-end steel with a strength level of 980 MPA (Megapascal) annually to manufacture premium passenger cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs). The company plans to capture a sizeable portion of this market, which is estimated to grow at 0-15% in the coming years.

“We have invested a huge amount of money to set up this plant, which will help the automobile industry save precious foreign exchange and also reduce dependency on the imported steel. We will be able to supply the high-quality steel at shorter duration (4 weeks) compared to the present time period of 3 months to import. We can also offer the steel at 15% lesser cost compared to the imported material,” said Vinod Nowal, deputy managing director, JSW Steel Limited.

He said the company has entered into a dialogue with several automobile companies to test its new steel. They include Honda, Hyundai, Maruti, Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Volkswagen among others.

“The entire process of test and try our new steel will take at least 8 months for the automakers and once they place the order, we will start the supplies. Until then, we will manufacture the product for general engineering industries,” he told reporters, here today.

Nowal said the new CRM-2 complex, with a production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes per annum has capability to produce high strength and advanced high strength steel, both in uncoated and coated (galvanized and galvannealed GI and GA) categories and wider width up to 1,870 mm. It also includes a Continuous Annealing Line, which is the first to start operations in India, he said.

JFE Steel of Japan has a 15% stake in JSW Steel and has provided technical assistance to develop various grades of auto steel, including steel for external panels for automobiles, to meet the high demand from both domestic and international arena, he said. The phase-2 of the CRM-2 plant consisting of 0.95 MTPA Continuous Annealing Line (CAL-2) is targetted to be commissioned during the first half of FY16.