Tata Steel sets records in output, sales
Financial Express — April 3, 2007

Tata Steel has finished 2006-07 with best-ever production and sales figures. While the company produced 5.55 million tonne (mt) of hot metal, production of crude and saleable steel stood at 5.05 mt and 4.93 mt, respectively.

This is the first time that the steel major's crude steel production crossed the 5-mt figure, making Jamshedpur the country's first ever steel centre to have touched the mark.

On the sales front, the company finished the financial year with record sales of both flat and long products. Sales of flat products to automotive companies stood at 0.85 mt, up 28 per cent compared with last year. Sales of HR coils used in chassis of heavy vehicles also increased.

Tata Steel sold 1.3 mt of long products in the domestic market, up 27 per cent compared with the previous fiscal, with the industry growth figure for the country being around 8 per cent.

Again, turnover of its branded products during the year was Rs4,479 crore, up 17 per cent.

The steel major, which had started selling of its Tata Tiscon rebars by pieces during the year, achieved a sales turnover of Rs1,100 crore, a growth of 40 per cent compared with the 2005-06 figure. It thus became the first brand to cross the Rs1,000-crore sales figure.

The steel major received the 'global supplier approval' from Honda for its cold rolled sheets. It also bagged the 'best supplier' awards from companies like Whirlpool, Lucas TVS, etc during the year.

Tata Steel has been producing half-a-million tonne of hot metal every month since December 2006, making it the only steel plant in the country to achieve the distinction.

Its cold rolling mill (CRM) crossed the rated capacity of 1.2 mt, finishing the year with an output of 1.5 mt. All the profit centres of the company achieved their best annual production figures during 2006-07.