Full impact of capacity expansion will start coming in from FY26: JSW Steel MD

Let’s discuss the FY25 guidance that you have given for production as well as sales because that is suggesting an uptick of 6% to 8% only and that compares with the 8% to 10% growth you have been talking to me about earlier. Are you seeing a bit of a moderation in demand and that is why a bit of a lower guidance?
Jayant Acharya: No, I think we are still quite on that number of 8% to 10% growth in India going forward because last year, demand growth in India was about 13.6% on a back of 13% plus growth in the previous year. The numbers at 136 million tonnes last year was a 16 million incremental increase in volume.

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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIIM LucknowChief Operations Officer ProgrammeVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Chief Digital OfficerVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Chief Technology OfficerVisitGoing forward even if you take the quarter four growth which was about 9% which was lower because of subdued domestic sentiments, pre-election activity, even then we would add incrementally 12 to 13 million tonnes in this coming year as well. So, from a volume perspective I think we are good to go. Our hot strip mill in Vijayanagar has been commissioned. The integrated facilities are under commissioning in the next two months or so but as they ramp up, the production volumes will increase. Similarly, BPSL phase 2 expansions have been completed and they are also going to be ramping up for this year. So, you will see the full impact of this capacity expansion coming in FY26.

Talk to us about the domestic steel price scenario. We understand that there is a slide due to imports actually coming and impacting the space and now there is an added concern of China dumping due to US-China tariffs which are coming in and will be applied. In the context of all of you, how do you see the pricing trends take shape for you?
Jayant Acharya: I believe that the prices in India have bottomed out. If you see in the last quarter while the costs were also higher and the prices internationally and domestically also did correct, but having corrected it has bottomed out and we have seen an increase in prices of steel both internationally and domestically in April-May. But even after that increase, we are where we were six months back. So, from that perspective I think we have reached a stable pricing environment and maybe range bound.