Maha Seamless to import steel billets

Maharashtra Seamless, flagship company of the Rs 2,000 crore D P Jindal Group, is in talks with Chinese steel companies including Baosteel and Tianjin Steel for the import of round steel billets, which are used in making seamless pipes and tubes.

"We want to import semi-finished steel products and complete them here, and sell them to the East Asian and US markets," said D P Jindal, chairman, D P Jindal Group.

The agreement would be worth about Rs 200 crore, and the company will save up to 10 per cent by importing from China. The company plans to source about one-third of its annual requirement of billets from China.

"Due to scarcity in the domestic market, we import half the annual requirement of 1,50,000 tonne of billets," said Anil Jain, vice president, finance.

"Till now we have been importing from countries like Ukraine, Russia and Germany. But after the talks in China comes through, almost 30 per cent of would be sourced from Chinese players," he added.

Maharashtra Seamless has a capacity of 2,25,000 tonne of pipes and tubes per annum. At present, the company spends around Rs 25,000 per tonne importing the raw material. In the domestic market the price is higher by about Rs 1,000 per tonne.

"Importing from China reduces delivery time and we are in talks with their local players to ensure the quality of billets," said Jain.

The company saw its sales crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark in the FY06.