Jamshedpur: Tata Ryerson Ltd (TRL), a 50:50 joint venture between Ryerson-Tull of the US and Tata Steel, is set to invest around Rs 50 crore to double its production, sales and net profit in each of the coming years. TRL, according to its managing director, Mr Sandipan Chakraborty, is going to put up additional cold rolled (CR) steel-handling facilities at Pune and small new plants for cold rolled products at Chennai and Ghaziabad, respectively, in the near future.

‘‘We plan to invest another Rs 50 crore in the next 2-3 years,’’ the TRL managing director said. The company currently has CR and HR steel processing units here and at Pune. TRL Tuesday got a precision CR slitting line and a narrow precision cut-to-length line. Tata Steel managing director, B Muthuraman inaugurated the facilities located inside the steel major’s works, by pressing the buttons. TRL now has the full complement of precision commercial equipment to handle all hot rolled and cold rolled (CR) materials, including its high-end CR customers, especially in the sophisticated auto appliances sector. Telco, Maruti Udyog, Toyoto, Hyundai, Ford are some of TRL’s customers among auto companies, while Whirlpool, LG, Voltas are among the white goods manufacturers using its products. ‘‘The customers of CR mill products are very demanding. They want deliveries on a daily basis and would now ask on a shift-basis,’’ Mr Muthuraman said. Since Tata Steel as a CR steel producer was not in a position to handle such customers, it was Tata Ryerson which was ‘bridging the gap which exists in what the mill can do and what the customers were wanting,’’ he added. TRL currently handles around 30,000 metric tonnes of Tata Steel’s CR material each month against the steel major’s CR steel production of one lakh metric tonne per month.

The steel major is benefited by TRL’s presence as it does value-addition on the cold rolled (CR) and hot rolled (HR) steel produced by the former. ‘‘We are aiming at doubling the production, sales and net profit in each of the coming years,’’ Mr Chakraborty told reporters after the inauguration of the two units. The company’s product range has expanded from only hot rolled sheets and blanks to a wide variety of both hot and cold rolled sheets and blanks, as also Tisco’s galvanised sheets. Mr Chakraborty said that the company was going to have 50 more sales outlets around the country in the next five years. Tata Ryerson entered the distribution market in a big way last year, by opening new sales outlets at Raipur, Chennai and Haryana. It also upgraded its existing outlets at Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Faridabad and Pune.

‘‘We’ll not allow competition to come near us,’’ Mr Chakraborty added. Bhushen Steel is the only other competitor for TRL in the country, with TRL having an edge over the Ghaziabad-based company as it has the latest facilites. Tata Ryerson posted a turnover of Rs 95 crore (Rs 63.10 crore) in the just concluded year on a physical sales of 33,000 MT (20,885 MT) and production of 3.82 lakh MT (3.07 lakhMT). It had an earning before depreciation, interest and taxes (EBDIT) of Rs 15.5 crore (Rs 9.13 crore) during 2001-02. The company has made a total investment of around Rs 135 crore till date in all its facilities in the country, both for handling HR and CR steel.