JSW Steel is likely to commission its auto grade steel manufacturing unit at the Vijayanagar plant in Bellary district of Karnataka, by March 2014.

The project, with 2.3 million tpa capacity, is estimated to cost Rs 4,500 crore. The unit will manufacture outer body panels for passenger cars.

As part of the inauguration of the new facility, JSW rolled out its first coil in October 2013 from its auto grade steel rolling plant (pickling line and tandem cold mill).

Phase-I consists of 0.95 million tpa CAL-1 (continuous annealing line) and 0.4 million tpa CGL (continuous galvanising line), which will be fully commissioned by March 2014. Phase-II, consisting of 0.95 million tpa CAL-12, is scheduled for commissioning in FY15.

With this, the expansion of the steel plant will go up to 12.3 million tonne from the existing installed capacity of 10 million tonne.

JSW has collaborated with Japanese steel major, JFE, for setting up CRM-2.

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