JSPL to up power plant capacity

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), the Rs 1,200 crore arm of Jindal Corporation and a producer of long products, is looking at increasing its power plant capacity to 335 mw by March 2006.

"We plan to set up a coke oven, a sinter plant and a blast furnace. As we produce power from waste hot gases and coal washery rejects, this expansion in capacity will help us increase power generation capacity by 75 mw by 2006," Vikrant Gujral, vice chairman and CEO, JSPL said.

At present, JSPL has a power generation capacity of 205 mw at its Raigarh plant which will be increased by another 55 mw by the end of this year. By March 2006, the capacity would be 335 mw with the additional 75 mw.

"We are focusing on making ourselves self-reliant and sourcing most of our inputs in-house. Increasing power generation capacity is an important part of our expansion plan," Gujral said. JSPL will also set up a 1000 mw power plant which is estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore.

The company plans to set up a 8,00,000 lakh tonne coke oven plant. It has zeroed in on a Chinese firm for the Rs 250 crore plant.

"We have also prepared a blueprint for setting up 2 million tonne sinter plant with Germany's Lurgi and another 1.25 million tonne blast furnace with Italian-British company Danielli-Corus. However, they are in a planning stage and the memorandum of understanding have not been signed yet," Gujral said. More slab casters and billet casters are also on the anvil, he added.

With the new coke oven plant, JSPL intends to cut costs by nearly 30 per cent. "At present, we import nearly 2 lakh tonne of coke from China at the cost of Rs 4,000 crore annually. The new plant will help us reduce the cost considerably. And, greater power generation will also meet the needs of our sister concerns - Jindal Stainless and Jindal Vijaynagar," Sanjay Maroo, director (finance) JSPL, said.

JSPL will expand it steel making capacity of long products from 1.15 million tonne to 2.15 million by March 2006. And by December 2004, the company will increase capacity for steel to 1.2 million tonne and sponge iron to 1.3 million tonne.