JSL calls off JV project in Indonesia

JSL Ltd, India's largest producer of stainless steel, has called off plans for setting up a $1.2-billion joint venture project in Indonesia amidst the global economic downturn.

JSL (formerly Jindal Stainless) had, last year, entered into a joint venture with mining firm PT Antam TBK for setting up a 20,000-tonne ferro-nickel plant and 3-lakh-tonne stainless steel slab unit in Indonesia.

Prices of nickel, a major input for producing the alloy, however, dipped sharply, making the project unviable. "Nickel prices were hovering at $20,000-22,000 tonnes last year when we entered in to the 55:45 JV with PT Antam, but now the prices have plummeted to $10,000 per tonne, making the project unviable," Arvind Parakh, director (strategy & business development) of JSL, said.

"The project is no more commercially viable, so we have decided to shelve it," he added.

He said JSL would continue sourcing nickel from the Indonesian company, which is currently looking for possible buyer for JSL's stake in the JV.
 
JSL ltd, the flagship company of the Jindal Group and the country's top manufactured of  stainless steel, has invested about $4.5 million in the Indonesian JV.

JSL runs the country's only composite stainless steel plant at Hisar, which manufactures stainless steel slabs, blooms, hot rolled and cold rolled coils, 60 per cent of which are exported worldwide.

JSL Ltd has a ferro alloy plant at Vizakhapatnam with an installed capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum. It is also setting up a greenfield integrated stainless steel project in Orissa, with a capacity of 1.6 million tonnes per annum.

The company produces stainless steel precision strips in various grades. The company is also the exclusive producer of stainless steel strips for making razor and surgical blades in India.

Besides supplying CR strips to the government, the plant at Hisar houses a coin blanking line for supply of coin blanks to the Indian Mint and mints across the world.