Tata Steel expects to begin stage-wise commissioning of the first phase of the 6 million-tonne greenfield project in Odisha’s Kalinganagar district towards the end of this fiscal. This is the company’s second greenfield steel plant after Jamshedpur.
Subsequent to the commissioning and ramp-up of the first phase, Tata Steel will start implementation of the second phase of the flat products plant, whose capacity has been equally split into two parts.
The units which are getting ready for commissioning are: power generation, coke oven, sinter plant, blast furnace, steel melting shop and hot strip mills. “Work is on in full swing and Rs.8,000 crore was spent in 2013-14,” the company said in its annual report, adding that the 4,330 cubic metre capacity blast furnace at Kalinganagar would roll out high-end flat products.
Tata Steel Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry said that the company was focussed not only on the execution of plant facilities but also on addressing the developmental needs and aspirations of the communities around the project in health, education, livelihood and skill-building. The first phase is likely to generate employment of over 1,500 people directly and 3,000 indirectly. At the inception stage, over 36,000 people are engaged in construction, of whom 80 per cent is from the host State.
Sharing their views on the strategy and performance in 2013-14, the company’s top brass — T. V. Narendran, Managing Director, Tata Steel India and Southeast Asia; Karl Ulrich Koehler MD and CEO, Tata Steel Europe; and Koushik Chatterjee, Group Executive Director (Finance and Corporate), said that the company was now implementing its growth strategy in the more profitable Indian market.
They said that the Southeast Asian operations faced headwinds in terms of import pressure from China and political instability in Thailand, “Rebalancing our geographical footprint, restructuring and closure of loss-making operations have contributed to the stable performance,” they said. In 2013-14, Tata Steel’s EBIDTA (earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) improved by 14 per cent to Rs.13,281 crore from Rs.11,698 crore in 2012-13.
