JSW Steel to invest 3,000 cr in India projects in FY'10

The country's leading steel maker JSW Steel plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore in its India projects in 2009-10, a top company official said on Thurstoday. "Our business plan is to invest Rs 3,000 crore in the current financial year. The investment will be (spanned across) our plant in Vijaynagar and upcoming projects in Jharkhand and West Bengal," JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here. Of the proposed investment, Rs 1,500 crore would be from the company's internal accruals while the rest out of debt, Jindal said, adding JSW Steel will prefer domestic firms to overseas lendors for the debt. With the commissioning of an extended production line of three million tonnes at Vijaynagar in Karnataka early this year, JSW Steel's annual production capacity has reached 6.8 million tonnes, making it India's largest single-location unit. Besides brownfield expansion, the steel major has lined up two greenfield projects of 10 million tonnes per annum each in West Bengal and Jharkhand with a cumulative investment of Rs 70,000 crore. In West Bengal it has laid the foundation for the plant, while in Jharkhand it is in the process of acquiring land.