JSW Cement plans 8MT capacity in eastern region by 2023-24

JSW Cement, a part of the USD 13 billion JSW Group, on Tuesday said it will double cement capacity in the "very important" eastern region to 8 million tonne by 2023-24.

The current cement making capacity in the region is about 4 million tonne -- 2.4 million tonne at Salboni in West Bengal and 1.5 million tonne at Odhisa under Shiva Cement Ltd -- taken over by JSW Cement in 2017.

"The eastern region is very important to JSW Cement's growth story. The present market scenario for green cement gives us confidence that our plans to scale up production capacity will enable us to meet customer needs for such cement in this part," CEO Nilesh Narwekar said.

"The ramping up of production in the region will involve a combination of brownfield expansions at the Salboni unit, the Shiva Cement plant and a greenfield project in Odisha. These projects are expected to be commissioned in various phases until 2023," a company official said.

JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal had recently announced that Salboni unit's capacity will be doubled to 4.8 million tonne.

The official said JSW Cement will also commission its captive power plant of 18 MW in Salboni for power supply "at competitive rates" by July 2019.

The company has a total capacity of about 13 million tonne, which it wants to augment to 20 million tonne by 2021 at an estimated investment of Rs 2,000 crore.