Tata Steel teams up with BlueScope Steel

Tata Steel Ltd has signed separate share subscription and joint venture agreements with BlueScope Steel Ltd, Australia, to form a 50:50 joint venture in India to manufacture zinc / aluminium metallic coated steel, painted metallic coated steel and roll-formed steel products and deliver pre-engineered buildings and other building solutions.

B Muthuraman, managing director Tata Steel and Kirby Adams, CEO and managing director, BlueScope Steel signed the agreements and exchanged documents today.

BlueScope Steel is Australia's largest steel maker and supplies a large part of all flat steel products sold (including slab, hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, plate, tin plate and value-added metallic coated and painted steel products) in New Zealand and Australia. Its steelworks at Port Kembla in New South Wales is one of the world's lowest-cost producers of steel products. It is also the largest steel production facility in Australia .

BlueScope had undertaken a 12-month feasibility study which confirmed a "significant market opportunity" for the Australian company to take a leadership position in quality coated and buildings solutions within South Asia.

The joint venture company will construct a state-of-the-art metallic coating and painting facility at Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, at an investment of Rs 900 crore (A$ 265 million). The new plant will have a metallic coating capacity of 250,000 tonnes and with a paint line capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually and is expected to be operational by mid-2008.

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