Tata Steel's Proton order up by 2000 tonne

Tata Steel's first international order from Proton, the Malaysian state-run car company, has been revised upwards. The steelmaker will now supply 5,000 tonne of automotive-grade steel to Proton, compared with the initial order of 3,000 tonne in the previous year.

Proton sources around 9 per cent of its annual steel requirement, which is close to 60,000 tonne, from Tata Steel.

B Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, conformed the upward revision in the Proton's order.

Earlier he had said the company would supply up to 15 per cent of the Malaysian firm's steel requirement in due course. He, however, declined to specify the size of the deal.

Tata Steel's exports for the financial year ended March 31, 2004, stood at around 15 per cent of its total production of 4.05 million tonne. The company's exports turnover rose 17 per cent to $319.61 million from $272.46 million in the preceding fiscal.

Tata Steel recorded a 72 per cent jump in its net profit at Rs 1,746.22 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004, compared with Rs 1,012.31 crore in the previous fiscal. Net sales grew 23 per cent to Rs 10,702.39 crore from Rs 8,721.32 crore.