To cash in on the rise in demand for its products, JSW Steel plans to hike the annual capacity of its mills in the US to 30% by the end of the current fiscal.

JSW had trimmed production of the pipes and plate making mills in Texas to 20% of their capacities in May citing a slump in demand amid the economic crisis.

Mr Seshagiri Rao joint MD of JSW Steel in an interview said that "We want to increase the annual production capacity of the two US mills to 30% by the end of 2009-10.”

The mills have an installed capacity to produce 1.2 million tonnes of plates and 0.5 million tonnes of pipes annually. He added that "We see an improvement in demand, especially for our plates picking up from Asia, West Asia and North America. We expect an improvement in our pipe segment as well.”

JSW Steel has deferred the plans to increase its pipe making capacity by 0.5 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes per annum on account of the meltdown.

(Sourced from Zeenews.com)