JSPL invests $800 million in Oman Steel Plant

Kolkata: Naveen Jindal's JSPL group has commissioned a greenfield 2 million tonne (mt) steel plant in Sohar, Oman at an investment of $800 million. The greenfield unit, part of Jindal Shaheed Iron & Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSPL, is one of the largest steel plants in the Gulf region. With this, JSPL has gearing up to meet a substantial part of the shortfall in the North Africa and Gulf region, where steel demand is estimated at 12 million tonne per year.

JSPL had acquired Shaheed Iron & Steel's 1.5 mt gas-based hot briquetted iron (HBI) unit in 2010 for $500 million. With the commissioning of the new facility, Jindal Shaheed, is tipped to emerge as one of the largest steel plants in the Middle East & Gulf region. The steel melting shop, using stateof-art technology from Danielli Italy, is Oman's first and largest such unit and was commissioned in 23 months from the start of work at the site.

Commenting on the new facility, Naveen Jindal, chairman, JSPL said: "The commissioning of Jindal Shadeed's - Steel Melting Shop represents one more step of our commitment to build a comprehensive steel manufacturing facility in The Sultanate of Oman. The plant will not only meet the growing steel demand of Oman but would also cater to the needs of entire Gulf region & Middle East."

Earlier, Jindal Shadeed had set up a 1.8 mt direct reduced iron plant, which is operating at full capacity for the last two years. The facility is engineered by world-renowned Kobe Steel (Japan) and Midrex (USA), leaders in the field of direct iron technology.

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