JSW plans to expand unit capacity

Company is setting up 500 km slurry pipeline to import iron-ore into the Vijayanagar plant in Bellary from a port near Goa

JSW Steel is working towards a de-risking strategy for iron ore that will fuel its ambition to turn its Bellary plant into the world’s largest single-site steel plant by 2022. “We are setting up a 500-km slurry pipeline to import iron ore into the Vijayanagar plant in Bellary from a port near Goa,” Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said on Sunday.

He said Karnataka can offer ore of 15 mt, while to take the steel production to 20 mt, JSW would require 35 mt of ore. The project will pump imported ore from foreign sources and will have an annual freight cost saving of  Rs 2,000 crore and will help neutralise the cost disadvantage of imported ore, the company said.

JSW on Sunday said only 50 per cent of its iron-ore requirement is fed by domestic sources, mostly from Karnataka.