Tata Steel scouts for coal mines in Australia, NZ

Tata Steel, the private sector steel behemoth, is scouting for coal mines in Australia and New Zealand (NZ).

Confirming the development, senior company executives told Business Standard, "Tata Steel has set a target of reaching 15 million tonne per annum capacity by 2010. Keeping this expansion plan in mind, our requirement of coal will go up substantially and our current captive resources will not be enough to fulfill these. Therefore, we are on the lookout for coal in Australia and New Zealand."

The company has recently entered into a joint venture agreement with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation to set up a coke oven plant at Haldia with a capacity of 0.8 million tonnes of coke annually at the completion of phase one.

"We will require additional coal resources for this plant. It is likely that a part of the coke produced will be exported. However, primarily the output will be for captive consumption," a senior company executive said.

Tata Steel is currently undergoing a capacity expansion of one million tonne, which take its total installed capacity at Jamshedpur to five million tonne per annum. The company has outlined another expansion project of 2.4 million tonne, estimated to cost around Rs 8,000 crore. This project is expected to be commissioned by 2007-08.

The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Orissa government to set up a six million tonne steel plant at Kalinganagar in Jajpur district in Orissa. Tata Steel will be investing around Rs 12,000 crore for this project.

The company is also building a sea port at Dhamra in Orissa, along with Larsen & Toubro.

The company recently announced that it would be raising Rs 5,000 crore for funding these expansions.