JSW Steel Research Articles

Exploring the Use of Derivatives to Manage Financial Risks

Abstract: This research paper aims to investigate the use of derivatives in managing financial risks, with a special focus on the infrastructure sector. The study analyzes the positions taken by buyers in future and option contracts to mitigate risk exposure. The research period spans 28 days and focuses on three prominent companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE): Larsen & Toubro Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd, and JMR Airports Infrastructure Ltd. The paper examines the profit and loss outcomes of derivative positions and evaluates their effectiveness in managing financial risks in the infrastructure sector.

The Knight in Shining Armour: JSW Steel Ltd’s Acquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd

This case revolves around the acquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd (BPSL) by JSW Steel Ltd BPSL faced severe financial difficulties, prompting its lenders, including prominent Indian banks, to initiate insolvency proceedings under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2019. JSW Steel Ltd entered the competition to acquire BPSL’s assets and secured the bid. However, complications arose as the Enforcement Directorate and BPSL’s promoters raised objections, leading to delays in the insolvency process. The case spotlights a significant Indian corporate reform represented by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the establishment of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). This reform proved essential as it provided an alternative to distressed companies, which previously had no choice but to cease operations, adversely affecting both employees and lenders. The NCLAT has since introduced a win-win solution for most stakeholders. Furthermore, the case delves into the crucial characteristics of the steel industry, an indispensable product utilized across various global industries, and how these features significantly impact strategic decision-making. It underscores the strategic value of JSW Steel Ltd’s acquisition of a struggling company. In summary, it offers a comprehensive perspective on the insolvency process, the roles of the NCLAT and Enforcement Directorate, and the value generated through the acquisition.

A Case Study of CSR Practices by Select Agri Companies in Andhra Pradesh

Society and business go hand – in – hand. One cannot thrive without other. Business has its responsibility towards all the stakeholders apart from revenue generation for larger social good. Hence, business has a moral obligation to contribute to the betterment of society. In this light, Corporate Social Responsibility is a channel through which corporations address the issues of different stakeholders by integrating social, economic and environment aspects into business operations. Corporate social responsibility has intensely changed the way corporate entities conduct their business activities in the social environment in the 21st century.India is the only country which has regulated and mandated CSR. Andhra Pradesh stands in sixth place among 10 states getting Agri CSR expenditure in India. Andhra Pradesh with a good amount of rise in industries creates a societal responsibility towards society and environment by the industries. Corporate Social Responsibility activity brings a change in the lives of deprived people in rural India. Deprived people in India are mostly based on agriculture for their livelihood and CSR also plays a significant role in the agriculture sector. Business Corporate social responsibility has a positive correlation with the financial performance of the business. This paper provides an insight on the initiatives taken and future initiatives being planned by select companies of Andhra Pradesh with regard to Corporate Social Responsibility. The selected companies are namely ITC Ltd., JSW Steel Limited, Pedillite Industries Ltd., Cummins IndiaLt., HindustanZinc ltd. The data related to CSR practices of select companies of AP is collected from the websites of the industries, annual reports, newspapers, magazines, financial statements of the industries and the like. This research study explores about the contribution by the companies towards CSR practices and efforts made for the development of society.

A DMAIC framework to improve tumbler index of iron ore sinter at JSW Steel Dolvi - a case study

A DMAIC framework to improve tumbler index of iron ore sinter at JSW Steel Dolvi - a case study

Improvement in steel cleanliness of central strand in billet caster

ABSTRACT JSW Steel, Vijayanagar works operates a 44 T, eight-strand billet caster for continuous casting. Such large volume tundish has large differences between the central and the end strands from the shroud which affects the cleanliness and solidification between different strands. With an aim to improve the steel cleanliness in central strands, water modelling studies were carried out in a 0.25-scale perspex water model. Different configurations of dams were studied under steady and unsteady state conditions. The combination of the wedge and V-shaped dam configuration resulted in increasing the mean residence time of the central strand without affecting the flow behaviour of the last strands. Residence time at central strands increased by 15% and does not affect the vortex formation height. It was further validated on a plant scale tundish. Plant trials demonstrated a reduction in inclusion area percentage by 21% confirming the improved steel cleanliness in central strands.

A DMAIC framework to improve tumbler index of iron ore sinter at JSW Steel Dolvi a case study

A DMAIC framework to improve tumbler index of iron ore sinter at JSW Steel Dolvi a case study

A Comparative Study of Profitability Ratio Analysis of JSW Steel and Tata Steel

The first and foremost objective of any company is to earn profit. It is the major feature for the company’s financial performance and each and every shareholder of a company is interested to know profit of the company. To find out the financial performance of any company Ration Analysis is the main tool for it. Present research paper is on Profitability Analysis of selected steel companies of India.

CONSTRUCTION OF OPTIMAL PORTFOLIO USING SHARPE’S SINGLE INDEX MODEL

Portfolio of securities can comprise combination of financial securities. The combination may be equity stock, debit securiti es/ bonds, preference stock, or money market instruments. The well balanced portfolio of securities will give a minimum risk with a maximum return. Constructing an optima l portfolio is a difficult task for the individual inventors. Investor can minimise the risk and maximize return by investing on optimal portfolio of securities. But, construction of optimal portfolio is a difficult task when more assets are under evaluation. William Sharpe has simplified the process of construction of portfolio by relating the return in a security to a single market index with his Single Index model. The aim of the study is to construct optimal portfolio using Sharpe’s Single Index model taking 15 stocks listed at Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). With use of simpl e random sampling the researcher selected 15 stocks from the top 100 stocks listed at BSE. Seven stocks were occupied space in the optimal portfolio of stocks. They are DIVI’s Laboratories (39.17%), Wipro (12.77%), Nestle India (21.12%), Asian Paints (14.96%), Cipla (6.63%), Bajaj Finance (3.8 4%), and JSW Steel (1.51%).

Reduction in skull loss in billet caster tundish through water modelling studies

ABSTRACT During continuous casting, some amount of metal is left in the tundish at the end of the casting sequence to avoid slag entrapment into continuous casting mould. This tundish loss often called as skull loss. It reduces the caster yield and is directly related to the size of the tundish. JSW Steel operates with 44 T, 8 strand billet caster tundish which had ~7T tundish loss under previous operational practice. Water modelling studies were carried out using a 0.25 scale model to design a new tundish bottom to reduce tundish skull loss. Three different tundish bottom configurations were studied and the corresponding effect on tundish flow profile and vortex formation was also investigated. Based on water modelling results, the optimized tundish design was used for plant trials. A 47% reduction in skull loss was obtained with no adverse effect on steel cleanliness from different strands.

Thermo-kinetics, mass and heat balance in an energy optimizing furnace for primary steel making

ABSTRACT Energy optimizing furnace (EOF) is a primary steel making reactor, where the autogenous exothermic reaction heat, associated with the solute oxidation is utilized for making the steel. The thermo-kinetic reactions of the steel making process have been evaluated in the world’s largest, 65 ton EOF, at JSW Steel Ltd., Salem. The solute oxidation as a function of blow time and Si content was evaluated. The mass balance analysis showed that oxygen from the furnace atmosphere has to be entrained by the oxygen jet from the inclined supersonic lance, to completely oxidize the solutes in the melt. The heat balance showed that the power of 352 kWh per metric ton of hot metal is generated by the solute oxidation along with the post combustion. The characteristics of the inclined single hole-supersonic oxygen jet on the molten bath are brought out. Other operational aspects of the process are elaborated.

Integrated Management System for JSW Steel Melt Shop of 5 MTPA Capacity

Over the last few years we have been facing many problems related to the Occupational Health and Safety, Environmental Safety and Quality in construction sites during the execution of project. Now-a-days the clients need the work to be done with full quality in safety manner. This Paper explains the “Integrated Management System (IMS)”. which integrates various departments like Execution, Planning, Design, Occupational health and safety, Environmental Safety, Human Resources, Quality Assurance/Quality Control etc., according to standards such as ISO 9001, uISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. This IMS is one of emerging techniques that brings all the departments into a single one. This study was done by collecting the data by conducting interviews with professionals from all the departments in the Steel Melt Shop Construction Project such as Human Resource team, Design team, Procurementlteam, Execution Team, Quality team, Safety team etc. This Paper concludes with a detailed framework of IMS for a steel Melt shop Project by integrating the functions of various departments in the project and develops a basic plan of IMS for both Top level Management and Bottom Level Management. This IMS Plan has been Prepared for Contractors, its sub-contractors and other Stack holders if any involving in this project. This Integrated management system will minimize the overall cost, time and manpower.

Cold Briquetting of DRI Fines for Use in Steel Making Process

DRI fines, generated during its manufacture and handling, generate high content of fines in the size fraction less than 2 mm. It has iron content above 80%. It is difficult to directly use such iron-rich material in the primary steel making process, without agglomeration. At JSW Steel Vijayanagar, around 50 to 70 tons per day of DRI fines with < 2 mm size fraction get generated. The fines are used in base sinter mix or it may be agglomerated suitably to use it as a coolant in the primary steel making process. Since the fines are extremely reactive, they are susceptible to oxidation if it is not agglomerated as soon as it is generated. The present study brings out the development of an agglomeration process for the DRI fines to a dense metallized briquette, for use as a coolant in basic oxygen furnace. Initially, the conditions for briquetting such as use of binder, hardener, lime, dust, moisture, briquetting and curing conditions were established in a 10 kg batch size. This was followed by industrial-scale processing, at 500 kg batch size. The physical and chemical characteristics of the fines and briquettes were assessed at different stages. The cold compressive strength of the cured briquette was found to be a function of moisture content. The handling parameters in the production condition, for long-term pile-up of briquettes against oxidation, were brought out. The successful use of the briquettes in basic oxygen process was demonstrated.

Production of Dry Lean Concrete by Sustainable Materials to Use in Road Sub-Base Layer for Rigid Pavement

In the present scenario, due to the rapid demand on the infrastructure projects and consistent dependency over conventional materials have resulted in scarcity of the conventional construction materials and rise in construction costs. By replacing subbase layer of road with Dry lean concrete produced with sustainable materials, cost on the construction can be reduced by 51.4%. The various soil used in this study are red soil, loamy soil and black cotton soil. These soils are brought from different places of Bangalore. These soils are used to totally replace the fine aggregates. The LD slag obtained from JSW steel manufacturing plant from Bellary. To use the steel slag in concrete making process of Low strength Dry Lean Concrete, initial optimization of materials (steel slag) was done with the 7days strength. The most desirable and equivalent material to that of natural aggregates (i.e. steel slag) was found to be at 50% replacement and 100% replacement of coarse aggregate with LD slag. The each batch of concrete is prepared with soil and combination of 100% slag, 50% natural aggregates + 50% LD slag and 100% natural aggregates. The various soils used are red soil, loamy soil and BC soil. These cubes, cylinder and beams are tested for compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexure strength respectively for 7days and 28 days, and water absorption for each specimen of cube is measured at 28 days. It was observed that, strength of concrete produced using red soil, loamy soil are fulfilling the strength requirements of conventional dry lean concrete used as a sub base in rigid pavements. As per IRC: SP: 49-2014, the minimum strength requirement of cubes at 7 days is 7MPa.

Behaviour of Hydrogen During the Manufacture of Rail Steels

JSW Steel Ltd. supplies hydrogen-sensitive rail steels blooms for the manufacture of steel rails for Euro-rail application through AFERPI, Lucchini. The hydrogen distribution in the production of two high-carbon near-eutectoid rail steel grades VAR89S (typically, 0.70%C–0.3%Si–1.1%Mn–0.015%S) and VAR101 (typically, 0.80%C–0.42%Si–1.01%Mn–0.65%Cr–0.005%S) has been examined from the steel making stage to the as-cast blooms. In the steel grade VAR89S, the hydrogen distribution has been examined in the hot-rolled steel rails at different locations. The steel making involves primary steel making using energy optimizing furnace, ladle furnace followed by vacuum degassing. The hydrogen content before secondary steel making varies between 3 and 5.5 ppm H, which decreases to less than 1.5 ppm H after vacuum degassing. The steel picks up hydrogen, when transferred to tundish to a value, less than 2.5 ppm, associated with moisture in spray mass and tundish compound. On solidification in continuous casting, the hydrogen level decreases to less than 1.6 ppm H, which is associated with lowering of hydrogen solubility associated phase transformation of molten steel to solid. When the bloom is converted to steel rails, the hydrogen level further decreases due to the increased surface area-to-volume ratio. The final hydrogen levels in steel rails are < 1.6 ppm H, which is safe enough against defects such as shatter crack or Tache Ovales in steel rails.

Performance evaluation of a laboratory floatex density separator and its comparison with a spiral concentrator

ABSTRACT Two different samples were collected from the Beneficiation Plant (BP) for detailed studies. Sample I and Sample II are the feeds to the spiral concentrator from an existing beneficiation circuit of BP at JSW steel with two different size fractions of −1 mm + 150 µm assaying 53.26% Fe, 13.94% SiO2, 6.88% Al2O3 and −150 µm assaying 51.7% Fe, 17.4% SiO2, 4.3% Al2O3, respectively. The samples consist of hematite as the major iron-bearing mineral and goethite as the minor iron-bearing mineral. In both sample it was found that interlocked phases of hematite with gangue minerals like koalinite, quartz etc in varying proportion. Laboratory trials have been carried out using FDS by varying the teeter water flow rate and bed height set point at constant feed flow rate. For the spiral concentrator the feed rate, slurry density and splitter position were varied. Test results indicated that FDS was highly selective in rejecting siliceous and aluminous gangue from iron ore compared to the spiral concentrator.

A Study on Capital Structure Pattern of JSW Steel Industry

In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the “Capital Structure Pattern of JSW STEEL Industry”. An analysis of long-term solvency, assessment of debt-equity, debt to total fund and justification for the use of debt in JSW STEEL Industry through the application of ratio analysis and statistical test has been undertaken. The time period considered for evaluating the study is five years i.e. from 2013 to 2017. It is found that long term funds had contributed more on an average 72.59 percent of total funds when compared to short term funds (27.40 percent) in JSW STEEL Industry. Long term funds had apportioned nearly two-third of total funds. Shareholders’ funds had occupied on an average 34.57 percent of the total funds when compared to the borrowed funds (38.01 percent).

Static Thermochemical Model of COREX Melter Gasifier

COREX is one of the commercial smelting reduction processes. It uses the finer size ore and semi-soft coal instead of metallurgical coke to produce hot metal from iron ore. The use of top gas with high calorific value as a by-product export gas makes the process economical and green. The predictive thermochemical model of the COREX process presented here enables rapid computation of process parameters such as (1) required amount of ore, coal, and flux; (2) amount of slag and gas generated; and (3) gas compositions (based on the raw material and desired hot metal quality). The model helps in predicting the variations in process parameters with respect to the (1) degree of metallization and (2) post-combustion ratio for given raw material conditions. In general reduction in coal, flux, and oxygen, the requirement is concomitant with an increase in the degree of metallization and post-combustion ratio. The model reported here has been benchmarked using industrial data obtained from the JSW Steel Plant, India.

Optimization Studies of Hot Metal Desulphurized and Basic Oxygen Furnace Slags in Sinter Making at JSW Steel Limited

Optimization Studies of Hot Metal Desulphurized and Basic Oxygen Furnace Slags in Sinter Making at JSW Steel Limited

The Challenges at JSW Steel: Brand Valuation and Corporate Governance Issues

The shareholders of JSW Steel received a list of 24 items that would be put to vote in the AGM of the company, to be held on 31 July, 2014 along with the annual report of the company for the 2013–14 fiscal year. Item No. 23 of this list was a surprising addition, as the company stated that the brand name ‘JSW’ belongs to a private company called JSW Investments Private Limited (JSWIPL), promoted by Ms. Sangeeta Jindal, the wife of Mr. Sajjan Jindal, the Managing Director of JSW Jindal. It further stated that henceforth JSW Steel would pay 0.25% of the net consolidated turnover to JSWIPL for the use and promotion of the brand. The stock price fell in reaction to this news. JSW Steel justified its move by arguing that payment of royalties for the use of brand name is a common practice followed by Indian business groups. Many corporate governance experts, however, called this an abusive transaction and advised the shareholders to vote against the proposal. This case allows the examination of issues such as related party transactions and their corporate governance implications and the relevance of brand valuation for a steel company.

Evaluation and selection of material handling equipment in iron and steel industry using analytic hierarchy process

The paper presents the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a potential decision making method for use in the selection of the most suitable material handling (MH) system in an iron and steel industry. In this study, AHP is used in assessing the various material transportation systems employed in a steel manufacturing industry and to decide the best equipment to be used. Information on the use of AHP in evaluating MH equipment is provided and an AHP model is proposed to guide the management of an iron and steel Industry, i.e., JSW Steel Ltd. Most important factors while selecting material transportation equipment and their relative influence on the objective of decision-making model are found. A total of seven decision criteria and five different alternatives are considered for this purpose. Each alternative is evaluated in terms of the decision criteria and the relative importance (or weight) of each criterion is estimated. From the obtained pairwise comparison matrices, the best alternative is chosen. This paper provides a good insight into a decision-making model to guide managers for assessing the various material transportation equipment that are commonly employed in a steel manufacturing plant.