ET reported that stainless steel producer JSL Stainless has increased the proposed investment on Phase II development of its Orissa plant to INR 6,400 crore to augment production capacity to 1 million tonnes per annum.

Mr Arvind Parakh JSL Stainless Director (Strategy and Business Development) said that "As per the revised financial closure for Phase II of the project, we are investing INR 400 crore more in Orissa project to take the annual stainless steel production capacity to 1 million tonnes by 2012-13."

JSL, formerly known as Jindal Stainless, had originally envisaged setting up an 800,000 tonnes per annum stainless steel plant in Orissa. The original sanctioned investment on Phase II development was about INR 6,000 crore. The project is being funded in the debt-equity ratio of 70:30.

Mr Parakh said that "Now, we have decided to add a blast furnace to the plant to ramp up its proposed annual stainless steel production capacity to 1 million tonnes. We are in the process to finalize its supplier. We are talking to a few European and Asian firms for the same."

He added that the schedule to launch the under-construction 800.000 tonnes per annum unit in the state has been advanced by six months from the earlier deadline of March, 2012, as the firm is keen to tap rising demand for the alloy in India, mainly from the infrastructure space.

Mr Parakh said that "The commissioning of 800,000 tonnes unit has been advanced by 3 to 6 months. It will be fully commissioned in the beginning of the last quarter of the current fiscal. The company at present produces about 750,000 tonnes of stainless steel from its facilities in Hissar, Haryana. The company has a total debt of about INR 7,200 crore and has cash reserves of INR 350 to INR 400 crore. The company is in process of finalizing documents of its corporate debt restructuring program, which was closed in March 2010."

(Sourced from www.economictimes.indiatimes.com)