JSW Steel puts Rs 35,000-crore West Bengal plant on hold

JSW Steel said on Tuesday it has "put on hold" building a steel plant in the eastern part of the country due to uncertainty in sourcing key raw materials such as iron ore and coal.

JSW Steel, which is the country's third-largest steelmaker, had planned to build a steel plant in West Bengal with an output of 10 million tonnes a year at an investment of Rs 35,000 crore ($5.66 billion).

The company cited a Supreme Court verdict in September that scrapped most coal extraction permits granted to companies over the last two decades, after ruling the allocation process as arbitrary and illegal.

"Besides iron ore linkage for this project, the recent cancellation of coal mining concessions has added further uncertainty," JSW said in a filing to the stock exchange.

In November, Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) told Reuters it had shelved a US $10 billion coal-to-diesel project after the SC decision to scrap coal mines.

(Reuters)