Tata Steel and BlueScope Steel of Australia officially established their new joint venture and announced the managing director of the joint venture company at a ceremony here today. B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel, and Kirby Adams, CEO and managing director, BlueScope Steel, signed the agreements and exchanged documents. The 50:50 joint venture company will encompass the manufacture and supply of flat steel products such as ZINCALUME® and COLORBOND® coated steels, and a range of BUTLER® & LYSAGHT® metal building solutions.

The joint venture company will invest capital cost of Rs1,200 crore (A$365m) on four manufacturing locations in India, and a network of sales offices across SAARC.

B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel, said: "Tata Steel and BlueScope Steel share a similar approach to value creation in the steel business. Consumers will benefit from the range of solutions that will now be available to the building industry. This joint venture company combines the strengths of the two organisations and will increase the use of value added steel products."

Speaking at the occasion, Kirby Adams, managing director and CEO of BlueScope Steel, said: "Together, BlueScope Steel and Tata Steel have forged a powerful partnership, which will capitalise on the strengths of our two organisations in bringing premium quality branded products to the building and construction markets of India and South Asia."

Chetan Tolia will be the managing director of the new joint venture. Mr Tolia joins the joint venture from Tata Steel, having previously held the position of chief (strategy and planning). He had also worked in another Tata Steel joint venture company, Tata Ryerson, and is ideally qualified for the role.

Chetan Tolia, managing director, Tata Steel and BlueScope Steel joint venture, said, "This joint venture will deliver steel-based building solutions to the construction industry. The customers will benefit from the increased speed of construction, wider design options, on-site assembly of factory manufactured components, improved site safety and reduced wastage. This will overall enhance the way the building and construction industry operates today."

The board of both the principals have granted their approvals for the joint venture to construct a new, state-of-the-art metallic coating and painting facility at Jamshedpur in eastern India, adjacent to Tata Steel's existing steel works. The new facility will have a metallic coating capacity of 250,000 tonnes, and a paint line capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually. The capital cost of the project will be approximately A$265 million (Rs900 crore). The investment is consistent with the company's strategy of growing its downstream value-added products business. The decision to proceed with the development of a metallic coating and painting facility follows the completion of a rigorous 12-month feasibility study jointly undertaken by BlueScope Steel and Tata Steel representatives, which has confirmed the market opportunity.