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The world's sixth largest steel company now has a truly global footprint. A century after inception, Tata Steel is today the world's second most geographically spread out steel company, with operations in 26 countries, a commercial presence in over 50 nations and consolidated capacity of over 28 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
Tata Steel's annual report for 2007-08 reflects the fact that the company's performance has more than tripled in the last year; turnover is Rs132,110 crore, with PAT more than Rs12,000 crore.
The figures are due to the inclusion of Corus' results for the first time since its acquisition by Tata Steel in April 2007. The takeover of the UK based steel major, with its 20 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel plants across UK and Europe, has given Tata Steel a solid foundation in the markets of Europe and the US. Other strategic investments in Singapore-based NatSteel Asia and Thai company Millennium Steel (renamed Tata Steel Thailand) have given the Indian steel maker access to key markets in South East Asia. India contributes only 15 per cent of Tata Steel's revenue.
The steel giant's global presence is set to evolve even more – greenfield projects are coming up in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in India, as well as Vietnam, Iran and Bangladesh. The company has taken stakes in iron ore, limestone, low ash coal, coking coal and met coke mining interests in Australia, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Oman and India.
Tata Steel's business canvas is growing laterally as well – a new ferrochrome plant (Tata Steel KZN) has gone live in South Africa, a branded steel construction products company has been set up as a joint venture (Tata BlueScope Steel), and a titanium dioxide project in Tamil Nadu is in the planning stage. As a natural extension of its business interests, Tata Steel has invested in shipping company Tata NYK in partnership with the Japanese NYK shipping line.
Crafted over a century of challenges and moulded in the furnace of change, Tata Steel’s growth story is now unfolding rapidly in the global arena.
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