JSW Steel to commission auto grade steel plant by March

JSW Steel Limited is set to commission its 2.3 million tonne per annum auto-grade steel manufacturing unit at the Vijayanagar plant in Bellary district of Karnataka by March 2014. The company has invested close to Rs 4,500 crore for this unit, which will make outer body panels for passenger cars.

“We will complete the setting up of the unit by March and commission it. We have been supplying underbody parts to car manufacturers from our existing unit. We are in the process of developing the outer body panels, which is the most difficult product,” said Vinod K Nowal, deputy managing director, JSW Steel Limited.

As part of the soft launch of the new facility, JSW rolled out its first coil in October this year from its auto grade steel rolling plant (pickling line and tandem cold mill or PLTCM). Output from this new CRM-2 complex will cater to the automobile industry’s requirement of high-grade CRCA (cold rolled continuous annealing line) products.

The Phase-I consists of 0.95 mtpa CAL-1 (continuous annealing line) and 0.4 mtpa CGL (continuous galvanising line), which will be fully commissioned by March 2014. Phase-II consisting of 0.95 mtpa CAL-12 is scheduled for commission in FY15.

With this, the expansion of the steel plant will go up to 12.3 million tonnes. Currently, the installed capacity is 10 million tonnes.

JSW has collaborated with Japanese steel major JFE for setting up CRM-2.

“There are three stages in the production of auto grade steel, such as slab, HR coil and CR coils. We have already started producing slab and HR coils and are in the process of developing CR coils. We are also developing the final products as per the requirements of our customers and waiting for their approval,” Nowal said.

JSW’s customers for this product include Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto among others.

“The Indian automobile industry is importing over 3 million tonnes per annum auto grade steel from overseas markets and once JSW commissions the new plant it would be an import substitute. We will be in a position to supply in a lesser time and at a lower cost,” Nowal said.

While Tata Steel and Bhushan Steel are also working on manufacturing auto grade steel in their plants, JSW Steel will be the first to commission a plant of this size, he said.

The new capacity will help JSW in meeting the demand of automobile industry for high end products like dual-phase steel and strip steel as well. Currently, carmakers import an estimated 3-4 million tonnes of auto-grade steel for making outer body panels.