India’s JSW Steel Limited has put into play a plan to increase the share of long products in its product portfolio to meet rising demand from infrastructure and construction projects across the country, a company official said on Monday, August 21.
The official said that JSW Steel Limited’s total capacity will touch 50 million mt per year by 2030, of which long products, rebar and wire rod, will account for 35 percent. Currently, the company’s capacity is 28.2 million mt per year, of which long products account for 28 percent.
“We are in a situation where we are consuming more long products than flat products as India is focusing on creating new infrastructure,” G. S. Rathore, director of JSW Steel Limited, said.
“Historically, the company has been focused on flat products as we started out with a rolling mill. As a company policy we send 50 percent of flat product output to our own downstream units for value addition in the form of galvanizing, coating or tinning,” he said.
The company’s focus on increasing long products is in line with the industry trend to add long product capacities. Tata Steel Limited recently acquired Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL), an exclusive long product producing mill in Odisha with an annual capacity of 1 million mt, and now plans are being put in place by the new owner to ramp capacity up to 10 million mt per year.
A number of bidders are also weighing in on participation in the government’s privatization of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) with an exclusive long product mill of 7.3 million mt capacity located in the southern port town of Vishakhpatnam.
