JSW Cement subsidiary to invest ₹1,500 crore in 1.36-mt clinker unit

Shiva Cement, a subsidiary of JSW Cement, will invest over ₹1,500 crore in a 1.36-million tonne clinker unit project in Odisha. The project includes a one mtpa grinding unit, 8 MW waste heat recovery power plant, four mtpa crushing plants at its dolomite and limestone mines, a 10-Km long overland belt conveyor to transport limestone from the mines to the manufacturing plant and a railway siding with a 12-km track upto the Sagra station.

Once commissioned, the clinker unit will service JSW Cement’s manufacturing facilities across the eastern region and is expected to create around 500 job opportunities. Shiva Cement will become a strategic hub for JSW Cement’s operations in the East.

Parth Jindal, Managing Director of JSW Cement, said the company is close to signing up a debt of ₹1,100 crore through a consortium of banks and raising ₹400 crore through rights issue and issue of preferential shares of ₹150-200 crore to the promoter group.

The project is expected to be completed by end of next fiscal, he said.

The company awarded the contract for the project to Thyssenkrupp Industries India and Larsen & Toubro.

Strategic unit

For JSW Cement, the new clinker unit is part of its strategic roadmap to achieve 25 mtpa capacity by 2025, from the current capacity of 14 mtpa, with a special focus on scaling up its presence in the Eastern region of India.

Jindal said JSW Cement plans to go for initial public offering in next two years to raise ₹2,500 crore to ₹2,700 crore. Earlier, the company had plans to list on the exchange by December this year but the plan was affected due to slowdown in cement industry and Covid pandemic outbreak. The company has a debt of ₹2,800 crore and is expected to touch a peak of ₹3,500 crore before being bought down to ₹3,000 crore, he added.