Tata Steel foresees India to account for 73% of its global steel production over the next decade. The company is ramping up its Indian production capacity from the existing 20 million tonnes/year to 40m t/y by 2030, says chief executive T V Narendran.
With the recent development in the Indian state of Odisha (see Kallanish passim), the steel giant is eyeing to buy Neelachal Ispat Nigam and is evaluating Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, in which the government plans to sell its stake, Kallanish notes.
Following the overseas acquisitions of NatSteel Singapore, Millennium Steel Thailand, Corus and domestic acquisitions of Bhushan Steel and Usha Martin Steel, India’s contribution in overall group steel production increased from 29% in 2010 to 57% in 2020. “India is also one of the lowest-cost producers of steel in the world,” says the ceo.
Amid the pandemic-stricken economic scenario, the country’s oldest steel manufacturer managed to reduce net debt by INR 29,390 crore ($3.9 billion), taking consolidated net debt to INR 75,389 crore in the 2021 fiscal year (FY21), Tata says in a performance report.
During the period, the domestic steel industry suffered nationwide lockdowns owing to which the company faced production loss, especially in the first two quarters. Tata managed to bounce back in the next two quarters on the back of a strong revival of domestic demand and rebound in construction and industrial development activity in India. This helped the company to witness growth of 62% year-on-year in consolidated Ebitda of INR 30,892 crores.
India steel deliveries stood at 17.3mt in FY21, seeing marginal growth of 1.76% y-o-y. However, consolidated steel deliveries fell by 1.38% y-o-y to 28.5mt from 28.9mt last year.
Sayed Aameer India
