Kolkata: Tata Ryerson Ltd, which processes coils of steel into shapes and sizes required by user industries, is investing around Rs 100 crore over the next 2-3 years in adding capacity at its Jamshedpur facility and setting up new units at Faridabad and Chennai. The company, a 50:50 venture between Tata Iron & Steel Co and Ryerson Tull of the US, is considering all options for the investment even though the banks and promoters are keen to fund it. 

“A public offer of shares is one of the options, but we have not considered it this year,” Tata Ryerson managing director Sandipan Chakrabortty told reporters here. 

The Rs 30-crore unit coming up at Faridabad will service the demand from carmaker Maruti Udyog Ltd and white goods makers in the region. 

The company began seven years ago with a hot-rolled (HR) coil processing facility at Jamshedpur, and followed up with the second one at Ranjangaon near Pune in 1999. The first cold-rolled (CR) coil facility came up in Jamshedpur in 2000. 

The company is also ramping up its distribution set-up to fuel growth in turnover. Set up in 1997, Tata Ryerson reported a turnover of Rs 18 crore in 1998 and expects to end 2004 with Rs 300 crore. It processes and distributes over 7,50,000 tonne of steel a year. 

“We expect distribution volumes to go up by over 30 per cent this year,” Mr Chakrabortty said.He said Tata Ryerson is riding the boom in sectors like automobiles and white goods among others. HR steel goes into the underbody of cars, the chassis, wheel and pipes, among others. CR steel, a thinner product with a fine surface finish, is used for car bodies, cupboards, refrigerators and even cycle tubes, where glossy paint jobs are needed. 

“For us, growth is in waves, not straight lines, with each wave bigger than the earlier one,” he said. 

Ravi Inder Singh, chief of the Jamshedpur project, said the next cool product will be galvanised steel or CR steel with a coating of zinc. 

“Manufacturers of cars or refrigerators will be able to offer a 10-15 year guarantee on the body, because the zinc coating prevents rusting and corrosion,” Mr Singh said. 

Tata Ryerson wants to be processing 2 million tonne of steel by 2010 and become EVA-positive, with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore. 

Ryerson Tull “audits” the technology — the machines — with which the company cuts, shapes, slits or pickles the 30- tonne coils into smaller or narrower ones, or into sheets of various types required by user industries. However, the Tatas do not pay any royalty or technical fee to Ryerson.