Tata Steel

Tata Steel - Corporate Profile

Established in 1907, Tata Steel is Asia's first and India's largest private sector steel company. Tata Steel is among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world and one of the few select steel companies in the world that is EVA+ (Economic Value Added).

Its captive raw material resources and the state-of-the-art 5 MTPA (million tonne per annum) plant at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand State, India gives it a competitive edge. Determined to be a major global steel player, Tata Steel has recently included in its fold NatSteel, Asia (2 MTPA) and Millennium Steel (1.7 MTPA) creating a manufacturing network in eight markets in South East Asia and Pacific rim countries. Soon the Jamshedpur plant will expand its capacity from 5 MTPA to 7 MTPA by 2008.

The Company plans to enhance its capacity, manifold through organic growth and investments. The Company's wire manufacturing unit in Sri Lanka is known as Lanka Special Steel, while the joint venture in Thailand for limestone mining is known as Sila Eastern.

Tata Steel's products are targeted at the quality conscious auto sector and the burgeoning construction industry. With wire manufacturing facilities in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, the Company plans to emerge as a major global player in the wire business.

While the Company is focused in the pursuit of its operational goals, it is also committed to being a good corporate citizen. Tata Steel extends support to the economically underprivileged not by charity but by strengthening and empowering them with expertise and knowledge. Its community outreach programmes covers the Tata Steel managed city of Jamshedpur and over 600 villages in and around its manufacturing and raw materials operations.

Other Projects:

India

MTPA Metcoke project in West Bengal

Deep sea port in Dhamra, Orissa

Titanium Dioxide project in Tamil Nadu

Joint Venture with BlueScope Steel for metallic coating and painting steel unit

Overseas:

Development of a source of low ash coal from Queensland, Australia

Ferro Chrome production in Richards Bay, South Africa

Future Plans

Steel Plant Projects:

India

The Company has embarked upon setting up three green field steel plants in eastern India:

Overseas

3 MTPA in Iran 2 MTPA in Bangladesh

Products

Tata Steel's products include hot and cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanised sheets, tubes, wire rods, construction rebars, rings and bearings. In an attempt to 'decommoditise' steel, the company has introduced brands like Tata Steelium (the world's first branded Cold Rolled Steel), Tata Shaktee (Galvanised Corrugated Sheets), Tata Tiscon (re-bars), Tata Bearings, Tata Agrico (hand tools and implements), Tata Wiron (galvanised wire products), Tata Pipes (pipes for construction) and Tata Structura (contemporary construction material). The company has launched the Customer Value Management initiative with the objective of creating complete understanding of customer problems and finding solutions jointly. The company's Retail Value Management addresses the needs of distributors, retailers and end consumers. The company has also launched India's first steel retail store - steeljunction - for making steel shopping a happy and memorable experience.

Strategic Business Units

Apart from the main steel division, Tata Steel's operations are grouped under the following strategic business units.

Bearings Divisions:

Manufactures ball bearings, double row self-aligning bearings, clutch release bearings and tapped roller bearing for two wheelers, fans, water pumps, etc. Ferro Alloys and Minerals Division: Operates chrome mines and has unit for making ferro chrome and ferro manganese. It's one of the largest players in the global ferro chrome market.

Rings and Agrico Division:

The ring plant manufactures forged and rolled rings for bearings and automotive components. Tata Agrico is the first organized manufacturer in India of hand tools and implements for application in agriculture. Tata Growth Shop (TGS): Has designed, developed, manufactured, erected and commissioned thousands of tonnes of equipments ranging from overhead cranes to high precision components, including a rocket launch pad for the Indian Space and Research Organization.

Tubes Division:

The biggest steel tube manufacturer with the largest market share in the country, it aspires to strengthen its market presence by expanding and modernizing its commercial and precision tube manufacturing capacity.

Wire Division:

A pioneer in the manufacture of steel wires in India, it produces coated and uncoated wires, branded as Tata Wiron. The division also operates a wholly owned subsidiary in Sri Lanka.

To know more about Tata Steel, please visit www.tatasteel.com

Tata Group

The Tata Group is one of India's oldest, largest and most respected business conglomerates. The Tata Group's businesses are spread over several business sectors like engineering, materials, energy, chemicals, services, consumer products, information technology and communications, and educational institutes. It comprises 93 companies and operates in six continents. It employs some 220,000 people and collectively has a shareholder base of over two million.

History of Tata Group

The Tata Group was founded by Jamshetji Tata in the mid 19th century, a period when India had just set out on the road to gaining independence from British rule.

Profile of Jamsetji Nusserwaniji Tata

Tata’s life has been chronicled as early as 1914, in the first decade since he passed away in May 1904. The author of The Life and Life Work of J N Tata, Sir Dinshaw Wacha, was a former employee of Jamsetji’s Svedeshi Mills, who later became president of the Indian National Congress. The 1925 biography, J N Tata: A Chronicle of Life, though, was by a lecturer in history at the London School of Economics, F R Harris.

Obviously the native, who a newspaper editor described as the man "who looked boldly into the future and peering beyond the hand-to-mouth practice of his competitors discerned the possibility of an India which would embrace the complete economic cycle" had made an imprint on British minds. And why ever not? Jamsetji thought of harnessing hydro electric power for his textile mills as early as 1873. He gave Empress Mill workers ventilation and dehumidifying plants and a Provident Fund Scheme as early as 1886. Most of Jamsetji’s bequests to industrialising India, though, really saw the light of day after he passed away in May 1904.

The Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, (born out of a long-drawn-out battle of will with Lord Curzon, who had asked "where are the students qualified enough to enter such a university?") opened its doors in 1911. The Tata Iron and Steel Company plant in Bihar rolled out steel in 1912 and the city of Bombay switched on hydro electric power in 1915. Only the Taj Mahal Hotel reared its dome on the Bombay horizon during his lifetime.

Russi M Lala, author of The Creation of Wealth and other tomes on the Tata empire, attempts to go beyond a chronicle of events in For the love of India. He etches the entrepreneur in his political surroundings. In the 1880s, Lala points out, "The intelligentsia realized that a lot of the wealth of India was being funnelled to England, and the need to patronize Indian goods was important." Jamsetji had to fence with the powers that be, for tariffs that affected the competitiveness of Indian cloth, on rates levied on houses in the new suburbs of Bombay and over higher rates for shipments from India to the Far East.

True, the Empress Mills opened on January 1, 1877, the day Queen Victoria was proclaimed ‘Empress of India’ and Jamsetji had many friends among the British. Yet, says R M Lala, Jamsetji really shared Dadabhai Naoroji’s craving for "self-rule under British Paramountcy". "Dadabhai and Jamsetji," Lala writes, ‘‘were also critical of the impact of British rule on the Indian economy." He tells us that Jamsetji was present at the first session of the Indian National Congress in Bombay, supported it financially and remained its member all his life.