JSW adds muscle to infrastructure arm

Big plans

Mumbai, April 7: JSW Infrastructure and Logistics plans to invest over Rs 5,000 crore in building sea ports, airports and shipyards across the country over the next five years.

The idea is to support and provide the logistics backbone for the group’s steel, power and other downstream projects, said officials.

“From a 7-million-tonne steel firm, we will become a 10-million-tonne company by 2010. For every million tonne of steel we produce, we need to move four million tonnes cargo and hence, need a better control of our logistics as well as raw materials supply chain,” said B.V.J.K Sharma, director of JSW Infrastructure and Logistics Ltd.

The company will raise around Rs 1,000 crore through an IPO by the end of 2008 to fund part of its infrastructure expansion, said Sharma.

According to official estimates, by 2011 JSW Infrastructure will be charting around 36 million tonnes of cargo, primarily from Mozambique and Chile where the company has coking coal mines and iron ore assets, respectively, for its steel plants in Jharkhand and Bengal.

JSW Infrastructure is building a port and shipyard at Jaigarh, Maharastra, where it also plans to expand its 1,200MW power plant in multiples of 1200MW.

The project will entail a total investment of $650 million, of which the port will take up $350 million.

It will also build a 47-kilometre railway line linking Jaigarh to Ratnagiri at an investment of Rs 350 crore.

At Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, the company is building ship repair and shipyard facilities at an investment of $250 million.

The company will have to reclaim 50 hectares for the project, which will be functional by 2010.