Jindal Stainless Ltd (JSL) is expecting a 20 per cent growth in topline over the next 12 months as the company ramps up the sales of value-added products and supplies to the railways.
The company is going to commission a cold rolling mill at Jajpur, Odisha, in January with a 1-lakh-tonne capacity, catering to a wide cross section of the downstream industry such as kitchenware.
A similar sized facility wil be ready for production a few months down the line there, too.
“Cold-rolled (CR) products usually come with a higher margin. The two-lakh-tonne capacity will help. Moreover, we are supplying to the railways in a big way as they are procuring wagons, coaches and metro rakes,” Vijay Sharma, senior vice-president (sales and distribution, domestic and exports) of JSL, said.
The company, spearheaded by Ratan Jindal, has a 1.9-million-tonne capacity in two locations, Hisar in Haryana and Jajpur.
With the new facility which came up at an investment of Rs 240 crore, the cold-rolling capacity will go up to 1.1 million tonnes from 0.9 million tonnes.
JSL, which earned Rs 21,000 crore in revenues last year, believes it would be able to help grow the downstream kitchenware industry in the east.
The size of the market is one million tonne, with 15 per cent coming from China.
After the rollout of the goods and services tax (GST), which has helped the industry to become more organised, JSL sees big opportunity in kitchenware.
Odisha will help JSL — which has a similar facility in Hisar — in supplying cold-rolled stainless steel to kitchenware fabricators of the eastern and the northeastern region at a more competitive price.
The annual demand of kitchenware and allied application of stainless steel in India is valued at Rs 35,000 crore.
The kitchenware application demand is Rs 14,000 crore
The company has a small subsidiary that showcases potential fabricators to promote downstream kitchenware. It is also evaluating co-branding options with the established players who make pipes, tubes, kitchenware, sinks, and cookers.
