- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
ARCELORMITTAL and Nippon Steel Corp’s joint venture steel company in India has planned to invest about one trillion rupees (£9.6 billion) over 10 years to expand its operations in the country, Mint has reported citing a senior executive.
ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Ltd (AM/NS India) is owned 60 per cent by Arcelor Mittal, one of the world’s biggest steelmakers while the rest by Japan’s Nippon Steel.
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ArcelorMittal acquired Essar Steel India Limited in December 2019 for 42,000 crore rupees (£4 billion) and later tied up with Nippon Steel, also a frontline steel producer in the world. AM/NS India, an integrated flat steel producer, is the top steel producer in western India with its main facility at Hazira in the state of Gujarat.
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“The expansion plans are progressing well. In Hazira, we plan to take the capacity to 18 million tonnes (mt). And in Odisha, we are looking at setting up an additional 12 mt between Paradeep and Kendrapara. Wherever we can get the clearances earlier, we will start the process of building an integrated steel plant,” Dilip Oommen, chief executive of AM/NS India, said in an interview.
The company has signed an initial pact with the government of the eastern state of Odisha to set up a 12 mt steel factory.
“We are investing upwards of ₹50,000 crore (£4.8 billion) in Hazira and a similar figure in Odisha. All these investments will indeed support India’s ambition of growing the national steelmaking capacity to 300 mt,” Oommen added.
India’s present capacity is nearly 144 mt and increasing it is seen as an important step towards self-sufficiency.
Demand for steel in India is set to witness a spike, thanks to a massive push by the Narendra Modi government to build infrastructure, including new roads, railway stations and airports.
AM/NS India is also diversifying into renewable energy, including solar and hybrid power. “Our vision is very clear that we need to set up renewable energy business. We are in discussion with the government to procure land,” Oommen said.
The company is also looking to owning its own jetties as measures of having own logistics support.
“The investment for steel expansion in Hazira will be dependent on the logistics. We have two jetties right now, which we aim to upgrade and modernize to support the port logistics. For Odisha, we are looking at building our own jetties. We are building one in Paradeep and one in Kendrapara,” the CEO added.
Also, to secure its raw material needs, AM/NS plans to take part in mine auctions, the Mint report added. While it already has two iron ore mines — Thakurani and Sagasahi in Odisha — to meet its immediate needs, it is eyeing more. “But at the same time, we are participating in the auctions to ensure that we further securitize our raw material but obviously, taking the mines at the right price and not at a premium. We have seen that in the past, there are merchant miners and others who have taken mines and found it difficult to run operations because of the high premium,” Oommen added.
