Steelmaker JSW Steel on Thursday completed buying the plates & coil mill business of Welspun for a sum of Rs 848.5 crore under a business transfer agreement.
“It may kindly be noted that Laptev (a JSW Group company) has assigned all its rights and obligations under the BTA to
Limited. Accordingly, the Plates and Coil Mill Division (PCMD)is transferred to JSW Steel Limited from March 31, 2021,” said Welspun in a BSE Filing.
The transfer was completed on March 31st and the consideration amount will be paid on a deferred basis subject to Welspun fulfilling certain regulatory approvals and payment milestones as provided under the business transfer agreement, the company said.
In March 2019, Welspun Corp announced a value unlocking exercise Rs. 940 crore through the divestment of its Plate and Coil Mill Division (PCMD) and its 43 MW Power Division.
Turnover of the PCMD is around Rs. 1,230 crores comprising 16.90% of the Consolidated Revenues as of 31st March 2018 after which it was considered as a discontinued business. The Turnover of the PCMD Business is Rs 539.8 crore for Financial Year ending March 31, 2020.
” The PCMD Business will be of strategic importance for JSW to expand its value-added and special products portfolio, particularly plate mill plates in which JSW has so far not been present,” JSW Steel said in it’s BSE Filing
JSW Steel on Thursday also announced starting production of hot-rolled plates from its Dolvi works plant in Maharashtra.
“JSW Steel has commenced production of Hot-rolled plates from the new 5 million tonne per annum hot strip mill facility at its Dolvi Works,” the company said in a BSE Filing.
This comes at a time when the steel prices have touched record levels of Rs 57,000 to Rs 60,000 a tonne on the back of surging global prices and a better than expected domestic demand.
Morgan Stanley in its recent sector report said that the current cycle has an element of similarity to both the prior upcycles (after the global financial crisis 2009 and supply-side reforms during 2016-18).
“We see a sharp rebound in steel demand globally in 2021, supported by a V-Shaped economic recovery,” the report said.
The company is also planning to double Dolvi Works capacity to 10 million tonne per annum by the end of Q1 of FY22.
In order to take Dolvi’s capacity from 5 mtpa to 10 mtpa, some upstream and downstream facilities were planned with 4.5 mtpa of Blast furnace with a 5 mtpa of Steel Melt Shop and a 5 mtpa of hot strip mill and an 8 mtpa of pellet plant.
Now the 5 mtpa downstream facility of the hot-strip mill is up and running and is producing hot-rolled plates now.
The company recently completed the acquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd by transferring Rs 19,350 crore to a
(PNB) and bringing the three-and-a-half-year-old resolution process to an end, paving way for the Sajjan Jindal-led company to enter the mineral-rich eastern India, which has so far been dominated by state-owned SAIL and Tata Steel.
The current steelmaking capacity of JSW Steel is around 18 MTPA and after expansion in Vijayanagar, Dolvi and Salem along with the BPSL acquisition, the capacity is likely to go up to 27 MTPA, making the company the largest steel producer overtaking Tata Steel which has 20.6 MTPA capacity.
