JSHL to realise ‘Make in India’ initiative by upgrading its product offerings

January 3, 2022 5:49 pm

The current capacity utilisation of JSHL is ~90 percent and it is one of India’s largest stainless steel manufacturers developing all stainless steel grades.

Walk us through the journey of JSHL, India’s first stainless steel manufacturing company and your association as well. 

Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited (JSHL) was established in 1970 (then Jindal Strips Limited) in Hisar, Haryana by OP Jindal to help our country fulfil its stainless steel demand with ‘Made in India’ products. Since its inception, JSHL has worked on a strategy of both backward and forward integration; starting from melting, casting, hot rolling to cold rolling and other value additions. Today, JSHL is an integrated stainless steel plant with a melting capacity of 8,00,000 tonnes per annum. It is also the world’s largest producer of stainless steel strips for razor blades and India’s largest producer of coin blanks, serving the needs of Indian and international mints. JSHL’s Specialty Product Division caters to the high-end precision and specialty stainless steel requirements of reputed Indian and international customers. 

I started my career as Graduate Engineering Trainee in 1990.Throughout my 30 plus years of career at JSHL, I have traversed various roles in Projects, Operations, Maintenance, Commercial and De-bottling of all the business units, gaining both grassroots insights and a vantage view of overall manufacturing. 

In January 2020, I was made Head- Manufacturing to lead, direct, and monitor operations of all the manufacturing centres at Hisar unit, including technical, commercial, administrative, and EHS (Environment, Health & Safety) functions. 

Company’s product line and manufacturing facilities. 

Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Limited (JSHL) is one of India’s largest stainless steel manufacturers and specialises in developing all stainless steel grades; 200, 300, 400 and duplex stainless steel grade series. The Company’s product range includes stainless steel slabs, blooms, hot and cold rolled coils, plates, sheets, precision strips, blade steel, and coin blanks. JSHL’s manufacturing facility is located in Hisar, Haryana and has a steel melt capacity of 0.8 MTPA (million tonnes per annum). The Company has two subsidiaries- 

• Jindal Stainless Steelway Limited (JSSL): JSHL’s service centre network, JSSL is ISO 9001:2015 & 14001:2015 certified and offers convenient, customised, and just-in-time services to its customers’ doorsteps. JSHL had partnered with Steelway S.R.L., a leading Italian Company in the business of distribution and processing of steel, to service its valued customers with exact slit, cut-to-size, polished stainless steel sheets, coils and blanks conforming to highest standards of processing tolerances. The Company’s service centre facilities in Gurugram, Mumbai, Chennai, and Vadodara are installed with state-of-the-art, high-end precision slitting, cut-to-length, blanking and polishing lines supplied by leading equipment manufacturers. 
• JSL Lifestyle Limited (JSLL): JSL Lifestyle Limited is known for its uber luxury products in stainless steel. The Company has a strong presence in sectors like ART (Automotives, Railways, and Transport), ABC (Architecture, Building and Construction), and retail. JSLL creates spaces that use stainless steel as the core ingredient; be it modular kitchen, kitchenware, home and footprint office accessories, or cooking utensils. Launched in 2003, Arttd’inox is the first B2C brand of JSLL. With the objective to spread out the arena of stainless steel from kitchen shelves to the entire house and office, Arttd’inox has brought about excellent designs and forms in stainless steel tableware and home décor products in India. 

Manufacturing production with respect to melting capacity of the plant and plans for capacity augmentation in future? 

The current capacity utilisation of JSHL is ~90%. The Company recently rolled out a phased brownfield expansion to leverage its leadership position in specialty products. With an estimated CapEx of INR 450 crore, this move is expected to enhance its product mix and augment market reach. Highlights of expansion: 

• Strengthening product mix with expansion in value added product segment. 
• Expanding the Precision Strip production by 3x: The current precision strip capacity of 22,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) will be upped to 60,000 TPA in two phases. After the first phase of expansion completed by Q2 FY22, the total capacity stands at 48,000 TPA. It would strengthen the Company’s presence in segments such as Auto, Process Industry, and Oil & Petrochemicals, and also cater to niche segments like Aerospace and Electric Vehicles. • Expanding Blade Steel production by 1.7x: Company’s blade steel production will go from the current capacity of 14,000 TPA to 24,000 TPA in two phases. After the first phase of expansion by Q2 FY23, the total capacity would stand at 20,000 TPA. 

Energy efficiency practises and safety standards pursued by JSHL as it received ‘Excellent Energy Efficient Unit’ award in the manufacturing industry besides receiving ‘International Safety Award 2021 Merit’ award very recently. 

As the pioneer in the Indian stainless steel industry, JSHL enforces global protocols for safety and health and promotes both occupational and personal safety practises. For achieving this, the Company provides hands-on training to its staff for efficiently handling equipment. It also trains them to follow safety standards by means of regularly organised mock drills, competitions, and in-person/live safety seminars. The Company also follows a strict mandate for provision of safety gear for various operating units. 

JSHL also bagged the “Excellent Energy Efficient Unit” award at the 22nd National Award for Excellence in Energy Management 2021 for its efforts towards energy efficiency in its overall manufacturing process. CII acknowledged JSHL’s energy management among a total of 480 organisations from different sectors such as automobiles & engineering, buildings, cement, paper, power, and metals. JSHL is the first company in the Indian steel industry to implement ISO 50001:2018 norms for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy management system (EnMS). 

To optimise energy consumption in the company, what R & D and other measures are in place? 

Jindal Stainless has set a target to reduce its carbon emissions to the tune of 8-10 percent by 2025. The Company’s manufacturing facilities have already started migrating to an eco-efficient and green manufacturing set-up to drastically curb pollution. While following the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ motto, we have seen positive developments in the fields of energy, waste, and material management over a period of time. In line with the Performance, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme launched by the Indian government to achieve an overall energy consumption reduction in energy-intensive industries, JSHL recorded a 6.3 percent reduction in the specific power consumption (energy per tonne of product) during 2020, showing a significant improvement over the last few years. 

What are the future plans and focus in the next 3 years? 

We are looking forward to the proposed merger of JSHL into JSL that will create a mega stainless steel entity; one among the top 10 stainless steel companies in the world and the largest stainless steel company in India. The merger will not only enhance the Company’s product portfolio and customer-service, but will also offer a seamless, single-window, pan-India, as well as global network access to customers and further boost its ‘Just-inTime’ approach. The consolidation of businesses will recast the merged entity as an integrated, modern and ‘state-of-the-art’ manufacturing facility, bringing diversified technology, talent and R & D under one roof. The Company’s petition for merger is pending before Hon’ble NCLT, Chandigarh for approval. 

JSHL is determined to realise the ‘Make in India’ initiative by upgrading its product offerings to replace expensive or imported alternatives with superior and cost effective domestic variants. Developed within its R & D wing, JSHL will be offering special stainless steel variants for various niche sectors.