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"I think 2 years from now, in 2015 we will start the expansion of Jajpur plant (in Odisha). We are planning to double it to 2 MT," Company's Vice Chairman and Managing Director Ratan Jindal told PTI on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Metal Recycling Association of India here.
When asked about proposed investment on expansion, he said, "It will not be a huge investment but I would not like to comment right now because in two years many things will change. So putting any figure will be incorrect at this time."
Moreover, the company is trying to reach optimum production capacity of 1 MT at the Odisha plant as early as possible and is hopeful of achieving 75% capacity utilisation in the current fiscal, he said.
In the just concluded FY13, the Odisha plant had produced at the rate of 40%.
"It (Odisha plant) has stabilised, we are picking up every month. Hopefully we will reach 75% capacity utilisation this fiscal. We hope to produce roughly about 7-7.5 lakh tonnes this year," Jindal said, adding that expansion will begin after present capacity reaching to 100% production levels.
JSL had commissioned the Odisha plant in 2011. At present, it has a total production capacity of about 1.8 MT, including a stainless steel factory in Haryana's Hisar. To run its operations, it requires about 8-9 lakh tonnes of chrome ore and 1.2 million tonnes of coal.
However, the company, which is already under corporate debt restructuring scheme, has been hit hard by rising interest costs in recent times. At present, its debt is at about Rs 12,500 crore, while its debt-equity ratio was 5.91 during the first half of last fiscal.
When asked about high debt of the company, Jindal said that JSL has taken various measures to reduce it. Besides, increased production from Odisha would also help the company in reducing its cost.
"We are taking lot of measures to bring down the cost and increase production. So I am sure that we should be able to come out of it (high debt levels) in next few years," he said.
Shares of the company were being traded at Rs 64.15 apiece on the BSE at 1430 hours, down 0.39% from the previous close.
