JSW Cement, a privately held company within Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Group, announced investments of $150 million to set up a 1 million tonne per annum (mtpa) clinker unit in Fujairah, UAE. The investment will also be used to set up a captive power plant to meet the energy requirements of the clinker unit, the company said in a press release on Thursday.
This investment will be made through JSW Cement Ltd’s wholly owned unit, JSW Cement FZE. The new clinker unit is part of the JSW Cement’s goal to achieve 20 MTPA capacity by 2020.
JSW Cement makes green cement, essentially cement produced from slag, a by-product of the steel manufacturing process that the bulk of JSW group revenues come from. It makes cement at Vijayanagar in Karnataka, Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh, Salboni in West Bengal and Dolvi in Maharashtra, using slag from adjacent steel plants to make Portland Slag Cement. Currently, it has a cement production capacity of 10.3 mtpa and has commissioned expansion of 2.4 mtpa at Vijayanagar. JSW Cement is targeting a manufacturing capacity of 20 mtpa by 2020.
The unit in Fujairah will service JSW Cement’s manufacturing units in coastal India. The firm said this investment will create 400-500 direct and indirect job opportunities. JSW Cement currently sells green cement in the southern, eastern and western markets.
In the note, Parth Jindal, MD, JSW Cement Ltd, said: “JSW Group has long-standing business relationships in UAE and specifically in Fujairah through our infrastructure business…The clinker unit at Fujairah will provide a strategic advantage to JSW Cement’s leadership position in India as a leading producer of green cement. We expect to commission the clinker unit by December 2019.”