Delivering a keynote presentation Tuesday at Fastmarkets AMM’s annual Steel Success Strategies conference, Jindal said infrastructure development will drive demand as more than a half-billion people in India are expected to move into urban areas.

“This means that every year we need to build a city as big as Chicago,” he said.

He said Indian steel demand is expected to grow from just over 100 million tons to more than 150 million tons by 2026. To meet that demand, the Indian government is seeking to double the country’s steel capacity to 300 million metric tons by 2030.  But it may need more, Jindal said.  

“I believe that these numbers are conservative,” he said.

Meanwhile in the U.S., Jindal said JSW is continuing to ramp up its Mingo Junction, Ohio, plant and is aiming for 1.5 million tons of annual production.

JSW bought the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel facility in 2018 and restarted an electric furnace there at year’s end. The furnace had been idle for more than nine years.

Jindal said the plant’s hot strip mill is running well. But Jindal said the furnace is having teething issues, and efforts to bring the furnace into stable production are ongoing. Nevertheless, they are making headway, he said.