Tata Steel to invest Rs 8,000 crore in Jamshedpur this FY

06 Aug 2011

Tata Steel managing director H M NerurkarTata Steel will invest Rs8,000 crore in the current fiscal at its Jamshedpur plant as its other greenfield projects are not making any significant progress, even as it plans to go ahead with its proposed investment in Karnataka.

"We are investing Rs8,000 crore in the current fiscal, which will be in the Jamshedpur (Jharkhand state) plant," Tata Steel managing director H M Nerurkar told reporters in Kolkata.

Tata Steel, part of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, will invest Rs8,000 crore in 2011-12 in Jamshedpur where crude steel capacity was being increased from 6.8 million tonnes to 9.7 million tonnes.

He said that the funds raised from Riversdale would be utilised for the capital expenditure plans. On raw materials issues, he said that efforts were on to reduce consumption of critical items such as coking coal through improved technologies. The direct shipping ore project in Canada (New Millennium Steel Capital Corporation) will yield around four million tonnes annually by March 2014.

The company was expecting domestic demand for steel to stay at 9 per cent in this financial year and rates to remain constant, while costs would rise or fall by Rs 1,000 per tonne for a short time.

"India will remain a net importer of steel despite concerns on growth in other markets," Nerurkar added.