JSW Steel mulls overseas buyouts

New Delhi: Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Steel on Sunday said it is evaluating proposals to acquire coal mines overseas to meet its long-term captive requirement and hedge against surging prices of the dry fuel.

“We have been looking for coal mines acquisition in Australia, America and Africa. We are currently evaluating some proposals, though nothing has been finalised yet,” JSW Steel joint MD MVS Seshagiri Rao said.

“However, it might take some time to take a final call since the viability of the target mines has to be seen before going in for acquisition,” he added.

JSW Steel had received a set back in Mozambique as the blocks for which mining concessions were granted to it found to be unviable for steel making. Initial survey in these mines revealed that the ash content was around 60% there.

“We will go for coal mines having reserves in the range between 10 million tonne and 1 billion tonne,” he said.

JSW Steel currently imports its entire coal requirement of 4.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) to feed its Bellary steel plant mainly from Australia. The plant has 6.8 mtpa steel making capacity now.

However, JSW Steel’s demand for coal is set to go up further as it increases the installed capacity at the plant to 10 mtpa by March 2011.