Jindal Stainless looks at 15-20% revenue growth in 2018-19

Jindal Stainless Group, which is planning to ramp up its capacity, is looking at a 15-20 per cent growth in revenue in the current financial year, an official said on Friday.

"Given the stable condition of the commodity market, we are expecting 15-20 per cent growth in revenue in the current fiscal. In 2017-18, our revenue was around Rs 20,000 crore," its Senior Vice President and Head (Sales and Distribution) Vijay Sharma said here.

He said that the volume growth is expected to be around 12-13 per cent in the current fiscal over last year. The group sold about 1.4 million tonnes of stainless steel in FY18 (2017-18).

The stainless steel market is growing by around 5 per cent globally and about 9-10 per cent in India, he said, adding that per capita consumption is around 2 kg in India, compared with a global average of 5 kg.

The group, which presently has most exposure in the flat stainless products category, has a smelting capacity 1.6 million tonnes a year.

"Our plan is to invest in cold rolling mills. Currently, we have a 450,000-tonne capacity in cold rolling and another 150,000 tonnes in our Indonesia facility. We will have about 200,000-tonne cold rolling capacity in our Jajpur plant," he said.

The official said that long products account for 20 per cent of total stainless steel market globally, and it is natural extension for the group.

"We are foraying into long products category and will start production in the next 3-4 months at our facility in Haryana's Hisar," Sharma said.

The group is looking to ramp up its manufacturing capacity to 50,000 tonnes annually for long products only over 12-18 months, he said.

The group is betting big on wagon segment and is expecting to double its supply to wagon manufacturers by end 2019-20 (FY20).

"At present, Jindal Stainless is supplying about 35,000 million tonnes annually to wagon manufacturers and is likely to touch 70,000 million tonnes by end of FY20," he said.

The company has also planned to create an industrial park at the Jajpur facility area, Sharma said.

Asked about the corporate debt restructuring (CDR), a company official said: "We have met all requirements for exiting from the CDR. We have turned around the operations, especially in these tough times. The banks are also in agreement with us and we have applied for the exit. We are awaiting response from the CDR cell now."

Presently, the group's debt, including both short-and long-term, is around Rs 7,400 crore, the company official added.

--IANS

bdc/tsb/sed