JSW Steel plans Rs 15,000 cr steel plant in Odisha

The compnay says at the moment it will be difficult to say whether its capacity will be three mtpa or 10 mtpa

Sajjan Jindal controlled JSW Steel, the country's leading integrated steel maker, is exploring the possibility of establishing a steel plant in Kendrapara district in coastal Odisha.

Though Jindal has not revealed the capacity of the project, his projected investment of Rs 15000 crore on the project hinted at a three million tonne per annum steelmaking capacity to start with."We have an investment plan of Rs  15,000 crore for a steel project in Odisha. We had identified 2-3 sites for the plant and Kendrapara has been found to be the most suitable site. Our basic idea is to locate the steel plant close to a port so that getting raw materials will be easier. Setting up the steel plant in the vicinity of a port will also ease exports of finished steel products”, said JSW chairman and managing director (CMD) Sajjan Jindal.

Asked on the capacity of the project, he said, “It is still at an exploratory stage. So, difficult to say at the moment whether its capacity will be three million tonne per annum (mtpa) or 10 mtpa. We believe that Odisha is the best state for steel investments with its raw material availability, manpower and also strong support from the government.”

JSW CMD said, two Jindal Group firms (Jindal Stainless Ltd and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd- JSPL) are running their steel mills in the state at Kalinga Nagar and Angul.