Comments
JSW Steel US plans to invest $500 million (Rs 3,400 crore) to acquire and enhance the 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 banks 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 which can produce a wide range of steel grades in widths up to 2,000 mm wide and 1.5 mm 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.
The proposed investment in Ohio will be made in two phases. In phase one, JSW will revamp and 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 the prevailing market conditions, it will later evaluate the 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 the 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 our capacity in Acero Junction over the next few years to have a combined capacity of four mtpa (3 mtpa at Acero and one mtpa at Baytown),'' Jindal said.
The Baytown plant caters to the need for energy, petrochemicals, defence and other heavy equipment industries in USA who need high quality carbon plate.
Meanwhile, JSW Steel has denied that it is in race to acquire the assets being auctioned by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company.
Responding to a media speculation, JSW Steel in a tweet said contrary to the media report, JSW Group is not currently inclined to bid for any assets being auctioned by ArcelorMittal Group globally.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.