After entering into an agreement to sell its Redi plant in Maharashtra, Tata Metaliks, a part of Tata Steel, is looking to add facilities at its
Sinter plant, coke oven batteries would be added at Kharagpur, Tata Metaliks chairman, Koushik Chatterjee, said, on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting. The capital expenditure programme for Kharagpur has not been finalized as yet, but is expected to happen by the end of the year.
Also, the company will review its ductile iron pipe joint venture, Tata Metaliks Kubota Pipes. “The company has had starting problems and the market was also wobbly,” Chatterjee explained.
On Wednesday, Tata Metaliks signed an agreement with Fomento Resources group, who has a presence in iron ore mining in Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra for divestment of the Redi facilities as a going concern for Rs 180 crore plus working capital.
With Redi now off the radar, plans are focused on Kharagpur. “Kharagpur is now our main hub though it was always important,” Chatterjee said.
Earlier, Tata Metaliks had put off its diversification plan into steelmaking at Kharagpur on account of problems with land acquisition. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) was purchasing the land for the company, but it had seen inordinate delay.