JSW Steel wins rights to develop coking coal mine in Mozambique

JSW Steel Ltd., India’s biggest steelmaker by capacity, won rights to develop a coal mine in Mozambique’s Tete province, securing access to a key raw material used in steel manufacturing.

The company’s Minas de Revuboe project in Mozambique’s Moatize coal basin holds about 850 million tons of reserves and could produce 250 million tons of saleable coal used in steelmaking, JSW Steel said in a statement late Friday.

JSW Steel plans to develop the mine in phases. The first stage is expected to take about two and a half years and produce 2.4 million tons of coal a year, according to the statement. Its proximity to ports could make the project a strategic supplier to other Indian steel plants.

As the company plans to increase its annual steelmaking capacity to 50 million tons in India by 2030, the asset will help secure and diversify raw-material supplies while cushioning JSW from volatile global coking coal prices, the company said.

With India’s domestic reserves limited, captive overseas sourcing has become a strategic priority, it said.

(By Pratik Parija)