India's JSL eyes 8.2 million t/y stainless capacity with new plant

Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL), India's largest stainless steel producer, has initiated land identification for its proposed 4 million tonnes/year greenfield facility in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The company expects to finalize the site within the next one to two quarters, according to market sources.

The project, entailing an investment of approximately $4.2 billion, will be executed in phases, with the first phase targeted for commissioning within four years. Beyond standard stainless steel products, the new mill will produce specialized grades for emerging sectors including the hydrogen, nuclear energy, defense, mobility, infrastructure, and processing industries.

The Maharashtra government has committed to expediting regulatory approvals and extending fiscal incentives to facilitate the investment, Mysteel Global understands.

JSL currently operates a combined stainless steel melting facility of 3 million t/y at its plants in Hisar, Haryana, and Jajpur, Odisha. Should the new 4 million t/y works materialize, its domestic melting capacity would expand to 7 million t/y. Combined with its 1.2 million t/y joint venture in Indonesia, the company's global stainless melting capacity would reach 8.2 million t/yr.

JSL holds a 49% stake in the JV, named PT Glory Metal Indonesia, which was developed with Singapore-based New Yaking Pte. Ltd. and commenced operations in March, Mysteel Global learned. The Indonesian operation strengthens JSL's access to nickel, a critical raw material in which India has no domestic reserves.

Meanwhile, JSL is advancing downstream brownfield expansion projects at its Jajpur, Hisar and Kharagpur plants. A 1.1 million t/y hot-rolled annealed pickled (HRAP) line and 170,000 t/y cold rolling capacity are being added at the Jajpur plant in Odisha, with commissioning scheduled over the next one to two years. Additional investments are being made to expand cold-rolling capacities at Hisar and Kharagpur, expected to come online in coming years.

Following these downstream expansions, JSL's cold rolling capacity - a downstream finishing process that produces thinner, higher-value stainless steel products - is projected to increase from 2.05 million t/y to 2.67 million t/y over the next two years, with approximately 64% of total melting capacity going to downstream processing facilities.

The company produces a comprehensive range of stainless steel flat products across austenitic, ferritic, martensitic and duplex grades, serving diverse industries including automotive, railways, construction, and consumer goods.

Written by Tiffany Hou, houtianhui@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com