B. Muthuraman

MUMBAI: Tata Steel is looking for acquisitions in India, China and Southeast Asia. In the immediate future, the company will focus on its greenfield facilities coming up in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, said B. Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel, while addressing the media here on Friday.

To facilitate better control over logistics, Tata Steel will benefit from the Tata group's entry into a 50:50 agreement with NYK of Japan to set up a shipping company. "The venture will take off in the next few months. NYK has its own ships and the joint venture company will own or charter ships and plans to become and expert shipping company in future,'' said Mr. Muthuraman, adding that Tata Steel's 50:50 port project with Larsen & Toubro in Dhamra would commence construction as soon as the monsoon season was over.

On the ownership of strategic raw materials, Mr. Muthuraman said the company was looking for coal mines in Australia and iron ores in India. "We are also looking for cheap sources of limestone in Thailand and Oman. We have received all clearances for its ferro chrome project in South Africa and work will commence in the third week of August 2006,'' said Mr. Muthuraman.

The company was also eyeing operations in primary steel making countries rich in iron ore like Iran and Bangladesh, but according to Mr. Muthuraman, "there has been some delay in both countries for no fault of ours.''

Tata Steel is expanding two units of the Singapore-based NatSteel, which it acquired in 2004-05 located in China.

Net exceeds Rs. 1,000 cr.

In spite of a sharp fall in steel prices, Tata Steel has announced a three per cent higher net profit at Rs. 1,013.94 crore on a consolidated basis for the first quarter of 2006-07 against Rs. 977.20 crore in the corresponding period last year. Sales for the quarter were up 11 per cent at Rs. 6,241.1 crore (Rs. 5,298.37 crore). The operating profit was Rs. 1,741.37 crore (Rs. 1,684.2 crore) and other income Rs. 79.14 crore (Rs. 31.17 crore).

During the quarter, the company produced 1.11 million tonnes of steel (9.49 lakh tonnes) and sold 1.12 million tonnes (8.75 lakh tonnes).Exports were up 12 per cent at $99.38 million ($93.27 million) The company continues to focus on branded products. In future, more and more products will be branded. All the products through the distribution and retail network will be branded and they now command a 5-10 per cent premium over the competitors' products.

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