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JSW Steel US plans to invest $500 million to acquire and enhance production of Acero Junction Inc, an integrated steel manufacturing unit with a potential capacity of three million tonnes per annum, at Ohio US.
Acero steel manufacturing facility, which is located on the bank of Ohio river, uses electric arc furnace route to produce hot rolled coils. It includes a 1.5 mtpa electric arc furnace, a 2.80 mtpa slab caster and a 3 mtpa hot strip mill that can produce a wide range of steel grades in widths up to 2,000 mm wide and 1.5mm to 10 mm in thickness.
With this fresh investment, JSW has taken its overall investment in the US market to $1 billion after US President Donald Trump clamped imports through punitive duty.
Two-phase investment
The proposed investment in Ohio will be made in two phases. In phase one, JSW will restart the electric arc furnace and the slab caster and modernise the hot strip mill with an investment of $250 million.
Depending upon the economic viability and then prevailing market conditions, it will later evaluate possibility of adding another electric arc furnace and additional manufacturing equipment at the hot strip mill with an investment of another $250 million to make the Ohio facility a fully integrated unit with 3 mtpa capacity.
Parth Jindal, Director, JSW Steel (USA) Inc, said with rich availability of scrap metal and abundance of natural gas, JSW believes making steel through electric arc furnace route is highly competitive in the US from a global standpoint.
Over the past few months, the company has also announced the backward integration of its plate and pipe mill in Baytown, Texas, he said.
“Through acquisition of Acero Junction, we will enhance our product range as we will be able to supply American Melted and Manufactured Hot Rolled coils. It is our intention to further augment capacity in Acero Junction over the next few years to have combined capacity of 4 mtpa (3 mtpa at Acero and one mtpa at Baytown).
The Baytown plant caters to the need of the energy, petrochemicals, defence and other heavy equipment industries in the US who need high quality carbon plate.
Meanwhile, JSW Steel has denied that it is in race to acquire assets being auctioned by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company.
Responding media speculation, JSW Steel in a tweet said contrary to media report, JSW Group is not currently inclined to bid for any assets being auctioned by ArcelorMittal Group globally.
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