JSW Steel will invest Rs 6,000 crore towards expansion purposes during the current fiscal, according to the company?s joint managing director and chief executive Y Siva Sagar Rao. The investments will include Rs 1,000 crore, which the company expects to spend on augmenting its raw material supply, by acquiring mines in India, Chile, Mozambique and Indonesia among others.
The remaining investments would be made towards capacity expansion at its plants in Karnataka?s Vijayanagar and Salem in Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the media, Rao said that the company currently has an annual capacity to produce 4.8 million tonne of steel in its plants in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This capacity would be increased to 8 million tonne by mid-2008 and touch 32 million tonne by 2020. ?By 2020, we will also have additional production of 10 million tonne each at our upcoming greenfield plants in West Bengal and Jharkhand,? Rao said.
Rao said that the company was in the process of acquiring land for its plant in Jharkhand, while in West Bengal the land was already purchased. ?In West Bengal, the plant is to begin production with 6 million tonne in the next 30 months,? he said. Each of the new plants would involve investments of Rs 40,000 crore each, he said.
The company holds a share of 15% in India?s steel market, with a 22% in the galvanised steel market.
JSW will also expand it branded retail format Shoppe, to set up 50 retail stores across India during the year, he said. The stores would be set up on franchisee model and would involve a cost of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 14 lakh for each. Company officials said that the aim of the retail initiative was to pump up steel consumption in India.