JSW Steel Targets Massive 78 Million Ton Capacity Expansion By FY32 | Growth Roadmap After Strong Q4
📅 May 15, 2026ET Now10 MIN13 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
JSW Steel management shares a detailed outlook on the steel sector, demand trends, margins, debt reduction, and the company's ...
What Jayant Acharya said
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Jayant Acharya, JMD & CEO of JSW Steel, discussed the company's Q4 FY26 results and growth roadmap. He noted global GDP growth at 3.1% per IMF and India's GDP growth at 7.6% last year, with RBI forecasting 6.9% this year. He highlighted a transformational year: completed Bhushan Steel JV, signed POSCO JV, acquired Mozambique coking coal mine, and deleveraged. Steel prices rose from a 6-year low in December, but costs increased $16 for coking coal and rupee depreciation impacted. He declined EBITDA per ton guidance but expects margins to improve in Q1 FY27. Net debt stood at ₹54,000 crore, with ₹7,900 crore more from Bhushan by June. He revised net debt-to-EBITDA cap to 3x, targeting 62 million tons capacity by FY32, plus 16 million from JVs, totaling 78 million tons in India. Capex for FY27 is ₹22,000-24,000 crore, adding 2 million tons from blast furnace 3 expansion and acquiring Bhushan Power (1 million ton asset).
Key takeaways
JSW Steel targets 78 million tons capacity in India by FY32, including JVs with Bhushan and POSCO.
Net debt reduced to ₹54,000 crore; next tranche of ₹7,900 crore from Bhushan due by June.
Revised net debt-to-EBITDA cap from 3.75x to 3x, with comfort below 2.5x.
FY27 capex guidance is ₹22,000-24,000 crore, adding 2 million tons from blast furnace 3 expansion.
Bhushan JV to expand from 4.5 to 10 million tons, with expansion starting by end of FY27.
Welcome back and some big buzzers in the market today as would be anticipated. There's just so many earnings which have come through. We're probably at the peak in terms of the volume of earnings coming at us on a daily basis. Sify is one of those which is down 12%. Topline miss is what the street seems to be disappointed with. Data Patterns is the other one. 9% lower on Data Patterns. Now here it's the exact flip. You've got very strong top line but margins which have missed estimates. Muthoot Finance, you know, that tonnage shrinking not being appreciated by the street. Second straight quarter that has happened. 4.5% lower on Muthoot Finance and more than the growth, it's really the tonnage which the street seems to be concerned about and that stock reacting. Shilpa Medicare though flying high in trade, 16.5% higher. Pearl Global margins expanding to near 11% as a result of it. That stock is up nearly 10% in trade. Sharda Motors, PV up 5%. Sharda Motors up 8.5%. So that's the other one. Very strong numbers, beat across the board. Top line, margins. In fact, Morgan Stanley expecting margins to go from that sub 3% number to 6% in just another couple of years. So you'll likely see those numbers translate. United Spirits is the other one. Again, very good numbers posted, you know, in terms of top line as well as margins. In fact, margins was more impressive than the top line. Let me go across though, we have JSW Steel, the management joining us. Jayant Acharya, Joint Managing Director and CEO at JSW Steel joining us. Very good having you, Mr. Acharya. Let me start off by, and before we talk about Q4, wanted to get a sense of your assessment of the current macroeconomic environment and its impact on the steel industry as a whole. What's the kind of tailwind that you're seeing?
So if you see the IMF forecast of the global economic growth at 3.1%, I think it still stands to be quite resilient, although they have flagged the risks and any prolonged extension of this conflict could have, you know, impact on the GDP growth. But as of now, it looks resilient. From an India perspective, I think if you look at the macros, you know, we are in a good space. Last year we grew at a 7.6% GDP rate and this year also the forecast by RBI is to be at the growth level of 6.9%, which is quite good given the overall circumstances globally. So from a macro standpoint and an India growth standpoint, I think we are in a good place.
And let's talk a little bit about Q4. Q4 steel sales were highest ever and one of the reasons of the strong Q4 was a surge in steel prices in the quarter ended Q4. Sustainable you believe with monsoon around the corner?
Before we go into the numbers, I would like to just, you know, give a backdrop that this year has been a transformational year for JSW Steel. Not only have we, you know, given very strong operational numbers for quarter 4 and the FY26, we have also been able to showcase that JSW Steel is resilient over the cycles. Our strategic joint ventures with Bhushan Steel and thereafter with POSCO have been signed and the Bhushan Steel transaction has been completed as per schedule by end March. We have progressed on our capacity expansion plans which we had taken up. We have enhanced our raw material security through the, you know, acquisition of the completion of the acquisition of the Mozambique mine for coking coal and we have significantly deleveraged our balance sheet making us much stronger for the next phase of growth which lays the foundation for the next phase of growth. Now coming to the operational numbers, yes, steel price has increased in this last quarter but keep in mind that it was from a 6-year low price in December. The prices have also been set off to some extent by cost increases. We had a $16 cost increase in coking coal. There were also other related cost increases including the depreciation of the rupee which had an impact on the quarter. Going forward, we do see that the prices, as we speak in May, will be rangebound. And we, the costs will also go up but we do see that some part of the price which will flow from quarter 4 into quarter 1 fully will help in, you know, keeping the margins on the positive side over what it was in quarter 4.
I will not be able to give you an EBITDA per ton guidance but as I mentioned, the price increases over January, February, March on steel prices would fully play out in the April-June quarter. The costs of this entire geopolitical challenge will also play out in quarter 1. But however, our feeling is that it will still incrementally add to the margin over the quarter 4 which we have seen. We remain positive about the volume because as we go into this financial year, our JVML capacities will be fully available and will be ramping up. We also will have the enhanced capacities from our Vijayanagar BF blast 3 augmentation and that would give, these both put together would give us additional volumes and we expect about 3 to 3.5 million tons of additional volume in this year.
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Acharya, J. (2026, May 15). JSW Steel Targets Massive 78 Million Ton Capacity Expansion By FY32 | Growth Roadmap After Strong Q4 [Interview transcript]. ET Now. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1254417/
MLA
Jayant Acharya. "JSW Steel Targets Massive 78 Million Ton Capacity Expansion By FY32 | Growth Roadmap After Strong Q4." ET Now, 15 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1254417/.
BibTeX
@misc{acharya2026_1254417,
author = {Jayant Acharya},
title = {JSW Steel Targets Massive 78 Million Ton Capacity Expansion By FY32 | Growth Roadmap After Strong Q4},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, ET Now. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1254417/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
