Naveen Jindal eyes Africa with steel mill, power plant

Billionaire Naveen Jindal, via a privately held unit, plans to set up a steel mill in Nigeria and a power plant in Botswana to serve the African market, two people familiar with the development said

- Mihir Mishra

As part of the plan, Vulcan Steel, a privately held company by the Jindal family, has decided to build a 3 million tonne per annum (mtpa) capacity steel plant, while Jindal Power Ltd, another privately held unit, will set up the thermal power unit, which will produce as much as 600 megawatts (MW) at peak capacity. The entities controlled by Jindal have secured minerals and power purchase agreements in both nations.

This would not be the first time Naveen Jindal has ventured overseas. The group’s entry into the Latin American market, however, did not go as planned.

“The plan is to set up a steel plant primarily to produce hot rolled coils with a capacity of 3 MTPA. No one else has a hot-rolled coil-making facility in Nigeria, where the requirement is met through imports," one of the two people said on condition of anonymity.