Expressing concerns over market conditions, India’s JSW Steel Limited has cut its planned capital expenditure for the current fiscal year by 45 percent compared to the earlier planned expenditure to INR 90,000 million ($1.2 billion), the company has stated in its annual report.
The capital expenditure to be completed in FY 2020-21 would be 12 percent lower than the total capital expenditure incurred during the previous fiscal year, the company said.
“The object is to conserve liquidity, ensure that strategic projects which are in advanced stages of completion are commissioned on priority basis,” JSW shariman Sajjan Jindal said in the company report
“Due to the lockdown and its subsequent extension, project activity at various sites were severely constrained by non-availability of required manpower and material, and hence the company has reduced its planned capital expenditure projects,” he said.
This year’s capital expenditure will be focused also on development of mines and iron ore and optimization of logistics.
The major projects that should be continuing are the expansion of JSW’s Dolvi steel mill from 5 million mt per year to 10 million mt per year, the commissioning of an 8 million mt per year pellet plant and wire rod mill at its Vijayanagar steel plant by middle of the current fiscal year and downstream modernization and capacity expansion of its color coated steel mill by the second half of the current fiscal, the company reported.