JSPL to enhance Angul plant's capacity to 20 mtpa by 2030

The Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) has set a target to increase its Angul plant's capacity to 20 mtpa by 2030, a top company official said Friday.

This was revealed by JSPL chairman Navin Jindal, who earlier in the day met Odisha steel and mines secretary R K Sharma here.

"We have plans to invest additional Rs 50,000 crore for enhancing the Angul plant's capacity from 6 mtpa to 20 mtpa in next 12 years," Jindal told reporters.

He said this time there would be not much borrowing as the company has decided to make investment from internal sources as well from equity shares from strategic investors.

"We will embark upon a new journey from 2021 to increase the Angul plant's capacity from 6 mtpa to 20 mtpa by 2030. The Centre has set a target to produce 300 mtpa steel by 2030-31 and we will also contribute to it," Jindal said.

He said the company has prepared the road map for enhancing the capacity of its Angul plant.

Claiming that JSPL's Angul plant has been doing very well, Jindal said the company was hopeful of producing 3 lakh metric tonne of hot metal in November, 2018 and 4 lakh metric tonne per month by March next year. He, however, admitted that the production at its Angul plant was affected due to month- long rainfall in the area.

Asked about the challenges in setting up of steel industries in the state, Jindal said availability of adequate coal and high price of iron ore are major hurdles before the steel industries.

However, Jindal maintained that despite the acute shortage of coal and iron ore at times, the company will move ahead with its mission to achieve the target.

He said that India is the fifth largest reserve of non-coking coal. Therefore, coal availability should not be a problem here. But, many steel plants face coal shortage. It is responsibility of Coal India to ensure that industries get their required dry fuel, he said.

Jindal said the state and the Central government should ensure that more iron ore was produced which would help normalise the price of raw material.