At Davos 2025 and joining me now is Sajjan Jindal. Sir, thanks very much for joining us here on CNBC TV8. Let me start by asking you about what you're picking up from the CEOs that you're talking to in terms of what the outlook for 2025 looks like. What's global demand likely to be?
I think we are having this Davos meet just when Trump is taking all the shadow of the Trump inauguration. That's right, so I think there is a lot of question marks on what's going to happen to the US, what Trump is going to do, and that will really define how the whole world order will happen. Last time around, Trump had put in a lot of import duties, and for him it's America first, so I think the concept of the WTO GATT is all thrown out of the window, and there's nothing like that. So I hope, and also the European Union is also looking the similar way, so therefore I think it's time that we in India start to think accordingly. Okay.
Well, you know, just on the US, since President Trump has promised to make America great again for the second time around, as well as once more Make in America, you have a plant there in the US, so it might actually benefit you.
Yeah, but that's a very small capacity. It's there is a plant, and we had invested in that plant because looking at that, the US will have to block all the imports coming in from outside the US, and knowing that, we invested in that plant. So for that particular plant, it's good news, but whether for the world it's a good news, I'm not sure.
No, absolutely. Of course there is uncertainty on how those tariffs are going to work out. But speaking of tariffs, the industry had asked the Indian government for protection by way of safeguard duties, anti-dumping duties. I believe that the work has started on the possibility of putting in safeguard duties. Have you heard back from the government?
Uh, we haven't yet, but there's a lot of work going on because it's not a simple process. They have to follow the due process, and that's going on, and we expect that over the next 10 to 15 days, we should hear something back from the government. Hopefully. But you know, in terms of demand at this point in time, because the outlook certainly seems to be that global growth will be stable, albeit uncertain, but stable at 3.3% – that's the IMF outlook. What's global demand for steel looking like? Well, globally, demand for steel is also quite okay, it's not bad, but Indian demand is very strong, and on the back of the investment by the government in the infrastructure sector and other areas, the demand for steel is strong in India, which is good news. So we are growing at about 10-12% steel consumption in India. So that's going well, except that today China is dumping either directly or indirectly through the FTA countries. That's the only concern we have. Once that is taken care of, the industry should be in good stead.
Well, speaking of China, let's talk about your electric mobility plans. You showcased your car at Bharat Mobility a couple of days ago. So, the possibility of you tying up with a global partner, and possibly a Chinese partner at that, outside of the existing partnership with MG?
No, so I'm very bullish about the electric mobility. India given that it's a large country with large demand for cars and our over dependence on imported fuel, in my view, electric cars make a lot of sense for India. So therefore, wherever technology lies, we will tie up with them to bring the technology to India and then very quickly localize it for the Indian market. That's a basic philosophy that I'm working with, and I'm quite sure that we will achieve that goal. We are already scouting around the world for the technology, and China plays a very important role in electric mobility because they have much more head start over other parts of the world. Most of the other parts of the world like Japan, Germany, Europe, their focus was on hydrogen mobility, whereas China went for electric battery and they have moved ahead, and battery has really come of age on technology. So therefore, for the cars, this battery technology is pretty good, and so we are working on that.
So how soon before we actually see an announcement coming in on this front?
Announcement I'm not sure, but we are already working on that project, and hopefully over the next 18 months, we will see a new product coming from the JSW saddle under the brand name of JSW.
So JSW will continue to be the brand that you will use as far as the electric vehicles are concerned as well?
Absolutely, yes. And in 18 months, we'll have the cars on the road. Hopefully, that's what we are gunning for.
And what are you looking at in terms of capacity at this point in time and localization as well? I mean, when you talk about localization, what are you working with to start with?
So our idea is that when we make a JSW car, it would be, to start with, 75 to 80% local. That's the key message that I have given to the team. We have to localize it, and the rest 20% should be done in the next 12 months. That's the whole idea. So we should be a 100% local car. We will bring the technology, wherever it takes, to buy the technology, we will buy it, and then develop it, do the research and development within our company, and then make it an Indian car. Hopefully in the next 18 months.
2025, outside of electric mobility and the steel business, on the cement side, an IPO likely?
