AMNS to ramp up finished steel output to 8.5 MT by 2024-end

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India plans to ramp up its finished steel producing capacity to 8.5 million tonnes per annum by the end of 2024, according to the ArcelorMittal annual report for 2019.

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AMNS India) is a 60:40 joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Japan-based Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) that owns integrated Hazira steel facility of erstwhile Essar Steel.

ArcelorMittal acquired debt-ridden Essar Steel India Ltd through insolvency process and subsequently renamed as AMNS India Limited in November 2019. ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corporation, later, formed the JV to own and operate AMNS India.

The resolution plan, which was approved for AMNS India (erstwhile Essar Steel), included an upfront payment of Rs 42,785 crore towards AMNS India's debt resolution including working capital payment, with further Rs 8,000 crore of capital injection.

"The resolution plan includes a capital expenditure plan of Rs 18,697 crore to be implemented in two stages over six years.

The first stage involves investments to increase the production of finished steel goods sustainably to 6.5 million tonnes per annum and includes completion of ongoing capital expenditure projects with respect to a coke oven, second sinter plant, third line CSP caster, Paradeep pellet plant and Dabuna beneficiation plant," ArcelorMittal said in its annual report for year 2019.

The first stage, it said, will also include investment in maintenance to restore current assets, implementation of an environmental management plan and the implementation of company's practices on raw material sourcing etc.

In the second stage, investments will be made to increase the production of finished steel goods from 6.5 million tonnes per annum to 8.5 million tonnes per annum by the end of 2024, including asset reconfiguration and the addition of a coke oven, blast furnace and basic oven furnace, the company said.

ArcelorMittal further said that "there is also a long-term aspiration to increase finished steel shipments (of the JV company AMNS) to between 12 MT and 15 million tonnes through the addition of new iron and steelmaking assets, so that AMNS India can play an active role and fully benefit from the anticipated growth in the Indian steel industry.