Tata Bluescope eyes Rs 1k cr biz
Hindustan Times — November 24, 2005

The 50:50 joint venture between Tata Steel Ltd and Australia's BlueScope Steel Ltd is aiming a total sales of Rs 1,000 crore within a year of starting operations by 2010. It expects to double sales within two years after that. The JV, Tata Bluescope Steel, will offer coated steel for the construction business in India and have a coating plant at Jamshedpur and three pre-engineered building manufacturing units in Delhi, Chennai and Pune.

The total investments for the four plants would be Rs 1,200 crore." The joint venture ought to open up an entirely new market for steel," said Kirby Adams, chief executive of BlueScope Steel. The JV will use cold rolled steel from Tata Steel's plant in Jamshedpur as its primary raw material. Anand Sen, Tata Steel's vicepresident, flat products, said, "We have some plans to expand capacity of our cold rolling mill, and by the time the joint venture is ready, I think we will be ready to meet their demands." India uses three times the tonnage of cement compared to steel, whereas in the developed world the ratio is 1:1.