The Hindu : Business : Tata Steel continues to grow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 21, 2005

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Business

Tata Steel continues to grow

By Our Staff Correspondent

MUMBAI, JAN. 20. Tata Steel has continued its impressive run and announced a net profit of Rs. 890.51 crores for the quarter ended December 2004 against Rs. 447.17 crores in the same period of the previous year. The company's sales for the period were at Rs. 4,090.46 crores (Rs. 2,967 crores). The operating profit for the quarter was at Rs. 1,571.55 crores (Rs. 880.45 crores).

Rs. 5,000-crore debt

An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders has been called on March 24 for obtaining approval to raise long-term resource requirement of up to Rs. 5,000 crores for funding the company growth projects.

For the nine months ended December 2004, Tata Steel announced a net profit of Rs. 2,565.58 crores (Rs. 1,117.34 crores) on sales of Rs. 11,603.74 crores (Rs. 8,430.91 crores). The operating profit was at Rs. 4,602.43 crores (Rs. 2,311.97 crores).

Addressing the media here, B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel said that by 2010, Tata Steel wanted to become a multi-locational player and the acquisition of NatSteel and the new 6 million tpa greenfield plant planned in Orissa were moves in that direction. Also, by 2010, he envisaged the capacity being ramped up to 15 million tpa. "The maximum potential at Jamshedpur will be reached with our plans to go up from 4 to 7.5 million tonnes. We are also considering the feasibility of a joint venture with Bluescope of Australia to get into construction solutions.''

The company is also looking to integrate its domestic and global operations and the new port coming up in Dhamra is a step in that direction. It is looking to grow its ferro chrome business in South Africa, considering the greenfield project in Bangla Desh and the limestone joint venture in Thailand. Domestically, the feasibility report of titanic project in Tamil Nadu is expected in 3-4 months and the company is progressing on the coke project in Haldia.

Mr. Muthuraman said demand in India this year would grow 7 per cent over last year. "We are on the threshold of gaining momentum and this year is challenging from an operations point of view.''

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