India begins to manufacture Automotive Grade Steel

[Chanakya's_Chant]

New JSW steel plant may make cars cheaper​

This is the first such facility in the country to manufacture outer body panels for passenger cars. ​

BELLARY: Your dream sedans and SUVs are expected to become lot more cheaper by next year as the imported steel used in manufacturing these cars will be made locally available by Bellary based JSW steel.

On Wednesday, the steel major formally announced the commissioning of its state-of-the-art Cold Roll Mill (CRM-2) plant to manufacture high-end products like automotive grade steel at its Vijayanagar plant in Toranagallu, about 350 km from Bangalore.

This is the first such facility in the country to manufacture outer body panels for passenger cars.

The 2.3 million tonne auto-grade steel manufacturing plant will be formally inaugurated by JSW steel chairman Sajjan Jindal on Friday and it will be attended by who is who of automotive industry.

"With India on road to becoming a global hub for automobiles, the demand for high end steel is likely to see an exponential growth. Keeping this in view, we have set up the new plant equipped with latest technology to produce continuously annealed cold rolled coils (up to a strength level of 980 megapascal) which was hitherto imported from other countries," said Vinod Nowal, deputy managing director, JSW steel.

He said the the new facility will benefit the car manufacturers and end buyers as the production cost of cars, SUVs, two-wheelers and home appliances will come down by about 10-15 percent by way of savings on freights, foreign exchange among other expenses. The cutting down on production cost would also provide a major relief to the automotive industry, which is reeling under negative sales growth, he said.

"Japanese car manufacturers Nissan and Honda have already shown keen interest in placing order to manufacture their SUVs in India. We expect more full-fledged orders from car makers by end of this year as more approvals are awaited," Nowal added. JSW steel has collaborated with Japanese steel major JFE for setting up CRM-2, which has a 15% stake in JSW steel with an investment of Rs 4,500 crore.

Presently, carmakers import about 20% of high quality steel from the the estimated 4 million tonnes of auto-grade steel used for making outer body panels in India. With the launch of the new facility, JSW hopes to meet at least 15% of the demand of automobile industry for high-end products including dual-phase steel and strip steel. JSW Steel already manufactures automotive steel for underbody parts and supplies to car manufacturers. The company earlier had invested Rs 1,150 crore to set up the 1 million tonne CRM plant, which is operational past few years. The new CRM-2 will manufacture exclusively outer body panels for cars and SUVs.

"For the last one year, we are working with car makers like Honda, Maruti, Toyota, Ford and Mahindra among others for their approval of our automotive steel. They were all looking forward for our new plant with superior technology," said G S Rathore, executive vice president, JSW steel.

Source:- New JSW steel plant may make cars cheaper - The Times of India

 

[notsuperstitious]

One step at a time. Must walk before we run.

 

[acetophenol]

The title is misleading. This is just a new plant,improving our production capability. We already makes auto grade steel.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

The title is misleading. This is just a new plant,improving our production capability. We already makes auto grade steel.

Absolutely. Even the news report itself says that just about 20% of auto-grade steel is presently being imported. That figure will reduce further.
About cars getting cheaper; I will not bet on that. That will simply depend on car manufacturers passing on cost-benefits to customers.