MITTAL'S MISSION STEEL

THE ARCELORMITTAL-NIPPON STEEL JOINT VENTURE COMPLETES FIVE YEARS OF OPERATION IN INDIA THIS YEAR. THE JV IS NOW LOOKING TO SCALE UP CAPACITY TO 40 MT BY 2035, ON THE BACK OF A ₹2.5-LAKH-CRORE WAR-CHEST.

- NEVIN JOHN

300 MT India's planned steel production by 2030, more than double its current production

HAZIRA, A bustling industrial town 25 km from Surat, Gujarat, shimmers under the midday sun as workers seek shade after their meals. The road to the ArcelorMittal/Nippon Steel India Ltd. (AM/NS) steel plant, located at the edge of the Arabian Sea, buzzes with trucks carrying steel coils and sheets. Within its sprawling 2,000-hectare complex, the steel mills hum tirelessly to meet the rising market demand.

The 9 million-tonne-per-annum (MTPA) steel plant uses a rare combination of three iron-making technologies—midrex, blast furnace, and corex. The opportunity for the 60:40 joint venture (JV) is huge—India is looking to more than double its steel production to 300 MT by 2030. What’s more, per capita crude steel consumption is also gaining momentum—from 59 kg in 2014 to 119 kg in 2023.

To tap into the rising demand, AM/NS bought an additional 700 hectares of land from private parties and forest and revenue departments in the vicinity. The plan is to make AM/NS Hazira the world’s largest, single-site, coastal steelmaking facility. The company is spending $5.1 billion for upstream capacity expansion to 15 MT by 2026, from 9 MT and $1 billion for ramping up manufacturing of patented value-added steel products for automotive, solar and wind energy, defence and infrastructure sectors. Another $1.6 billion will be spent for support facilities, taking the Phase 1 investment to $7.7 billion, estimated to enhance AM/NS India’s EBITDA and investable cash flow 2.5 times.

The JV will come up with downstream lines for making steel for the lucrative automotive market and high-end galvanised products, Dilip C. Oommen, director and CEO, AM/NS India, tells