JSW to invest over Rs 50,000 crore in green steel capacity

JSW Steel, India's second-largest steel maker is gearing up for the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) with a green steel plant at its existing facilities in Salav, Maharashtra.

 

JSW will set up an integrated green steel plant in Salav with a planned capacity of 4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in phases. It will eventually go up to 10 MTPA. The total investment in setting up this capacity will be over Rs 50,000 crore, said chairman and MD Sajjan Jindal.

 

With CBAM, the European Union's objective is to reduce carbon emissions, put a fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon-intensive goods imported into the EU and encourage cleaner industrial production. That has necessitated companies like JSW to look at specific capacities for green steel.

 

In the backdrop of the import tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump and worries of Chinese companies dumping cheap steel in India, Jindal was hopeful that a safeguard duty by the Indian government would be in place soon.

 

"India remains a very strong market. Now that also attracts a lot of other countries where the markets are not that strong. So, specially China, Vietnam... They are trying to dump steel in India. And so, the government of India is also very vigilant and they are already working on the recommendation for putting the safeguard duty," mentioned Jindal.

 

He said green energy and green steel was the way forward.

 

"The future is only going to be green because global warming is for real and Trump is there for four years. So, after that whoever will come will realise the reality of the world," said Jindal.

 

Meanwhile, Jindal believes India needs to take steps to boost economic growth, which in turn would create more jobs.

 

"We should try and push this economic growth rate higher. Lately, we are growing at 6-6.5, 7 per cent, which is not bad given the headwinds that we see globally. But, as the economy grows, to feed that growth in the economy, automatically jobs get created," stressed Jindal.

 

Speaking at the session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Jindal also threw some light on the electric vehicle business. JSW MG Motor India is a joint venture between China's SAIC Motor and JSW Group.

 

The company, which sells the MG Hector and the recently launched MG Windsor EV among other vehicles, will launch a hybrid next year.  The company also has plans to make EV battery cells in India and is in talks with foreign companies for the same.

 

"At JSW we have plans to manufacture these cells. We are already working on developing the cells with the technology from China," he said.

 

The company is also in talks with a Korean company for the same, he added.

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