JSW Steel to halt expansion of Vijayanagar unit

JSW Steel will not go ahead with its proposed expansion plans at its Vijayanagar (Bellary) unit until it receives approval for captive iron ore mine in Karnataka.

It had earlier evinced interest to expand the capacity of the Vijayanagar facility to 16 million tonnes (mt) from 10 mt.

Vinod Nowal, chief executive officer and director of the company, said, “We will not expand the capacity to 16 mt until there is a captive iron ore source available to us.” He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Bangalore Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to entertain a plea of the company to direct the Karnataka government to lease a captive mine for the plant. The court was not convinced by JSW’s submission that it made an investment of Rs 10,000 crore by setting a steel plant on the assurances of the state government that a captive mine would be allotted to it. It, however, allowed the company to appeal in the Karnataka High Court with its grievances.

“Our legal department is examining the case and we will appeal in the high court,” he said. Despite operating a 10-mt steel plant in Karnataka, the company doesn’t have any captive iron ore source in the state. It is procuring iron ore from Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to feed the plant. Nowal said the supply situation with respect to iron ore was tight and the company had stocks for 10 days only.

It reported a 29.8 per cent growth in net profit at Rs 793.6 crore for the fourth quarter of the last financial year. Net sales rose 32.5 per cent to Rs 7,209.3 crore from Rs 5,441.3 crore in the previous corresponding period.