)
Jindal Steel and Power Limited, one of the largest players in steel market in India, plans to strengthen its presence in the Punjab retail market.
The company is eyeing end users with the Thermo Mechanically Treated (TMT) Rebars for residential and industrial projects in the high seismic zones.
The Managing Director and CEO of the company Ravi Uppal said there was a high demand of TMT bars in tier two towns in Punjab and neighbouring areas and there is a big room for organised players.
"Out of the total market size of 80 million tonnes, only 24 million tonnes of Rebar TMT is provided by the organised players. With the growing awareness among the end users, the demand for good quality branded steel was on the rise," he said.
The company, he said, has 23 stockyards in India and plans to add three more - one for Jammu in north - to expand its retail network across India.
The existing stockyard at Ludhiana has excess capacities and the company has a sufficient network of dealers and distributers in Punjab to handle the increase in volume of products.
The earthquake-prone area in north requires steel with higher ductability which is not provided by the local players.
Envisaging a growing demand for steel in housing and infrastructure, the company plans to invest Rs 12,000 crore to ramp up its capacities at the existing plants at Angul in Orissa and at Patratu in Jharkhand.
After the capacity additions, the company would be able to manufacture 4 million tonne of TMT bars per annum, he said.
