Jindal Vizag plant's financial closure in 8 months

The Jindal Group's JSW Aluminium Limited, which signed a memorandum of understanding about six months back with the state government for setting up a 1.4-million tonne capacity aluminium refinery in Visakhapatnam district, will take another 6-8 months to achieve financial closure.

"The cost of the proposed project will be around Rs 9,000 crore including the captive power plant. We have not yet finalised the debt-equity ratio, so it will take 6-8 months to achieve financial closure," Hormohan H Sahni, chief finance officer of JSW Aluminium Limited, told mediapersons on Wednesday.

The company may mop up 40-50 per cent of the total project cost from internal resources, and will approach financial institutions for the remaining funds.

The group is also planning to own a berth at the Visakhapatnam port or at the upcoming Gangavaram port for alumina exports.

"We plan to export alumina produced from the plant. Keeping this in mind, we have already approached the Visakhapatnam port for construction of a captive berth on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis. We have the option of Gangavaram port too," Anunay Kumar, director (business development), JSW Aluminium, said.

According to him, JSW needs about 4.5 million tonnes of bauxite ore annually, which would be supplied by the state government.

"We will not take part in the bauxite mining activity, but if the government requires, we will provide technology and machinery for better mining without disturbing the forest area," he said.

The government had completed the acquisition of 4,000 acres of land to set up the unit. It had agreed to supply 25 MGD (million gallons per day) of water for production requirements, he said. "Within 36 months, we will start production.

The company plans to expand the plant capacity from the proposed 1.4 million tonnes to 2.8 million tonnes in the near future," he said.