Jindal Steel and Power Ltd's plans to build a 2.52 million tonnes a year natural gas-based steel plant at El-Mutun, Puerto Suarez in Bolivia.

Jindal Steel Bolivia, the subsidiary of JSPL will use Midrex Technologies' direct reduction technology to build the plant, which will be the largest single module till date, the company said in a statement. Jindal Steel has signed the contract for the Midrex plant on March 30.

The project will be known as the Naveen Ultra Mega Mod DRI and will feature the latest Midrex shaft furnace innovations and will have the flexibility to produce both quality hot direct reduced iron and hot briquetted iron for use in a new proposed Greenfield meltshop.

Jindal Steel did not disclose how much it is going to invest in this specific plant. However, the company had earlier indicated that it would invest a total of $2.1 billion over eight years in Bolivia.

Raw material

For the proposed DRI plant, iron ore and iron pellets will be supplied by JSB from its El Mutun iron ore reserves in Bolivia, where the company is also installing a pellet plant and steel making facility. The Naveen Ultra Mega Mod plant can produce up to 2.70 million tonnes a year of DRI, depending on the quality of inputs, operating parameters and skills of the workforce, the company said.

JSPL scrip ended almost flat at Rs 619.45 on the BSE on Thursday.

This is third DRI plant where Jindal Steel is using the technology of US-based Midrex Technologies. In 2009, Jindal had signed up with Midrex for its 1.8 mtpa coal gasification-based DRI plant in Angul, Orissa. In 2010, Jindal acquired the Shadeed Steel plant in Oman that runs on the Midrex technology.

Related Topics