Tata Steel auto grade steel sales up 15 pc in FY 14

Domestic giant Tata Steel has said despite a tough year for automobile sector, FY 14 saw sales of its special grade steel used in vehicles jump 15 per cent.
The player which is counted among top 10 steel producers in the world, in a latest publication has said that despite a negative growth of 16 per cent and five per cent in commercial vehicles and and passenger cars it could achieve growth in automative sales mainly on the back of replacing imports.
"Despite this dismal growth, Tata Steel automotive sales could register a growth of 15 per cent in FY 14 over FY 13, primarily by replacing imports and weaning away share from competition, supported by additional volumes from its newly commissioned TSCR (Thin Slab Casting & Rolling) line," the company's Vice President, Steel, Marketing & Sales, Peeyush Gupta said in the newsletter.

Gupta said going forward, in the company's opinion, "the major steel consuming commercial vehicles (CV) segment will bounce back as the new Government provides growth impetus to the economy."
The car manufacturers are also bracing themselves for a growth period by launching new variants/models and taking advantage of Government-aided schemes on excise duty cuts, he said.
"Thus, we anticipate the Automotive sector to show a growth of 3-4 per cent in the coming fiscal and a further improved forecast for FY 16," Gupta added.

One distinct feature of Tata Steel's approach to serve the Automotive segment has been to migrate towards high-end products (essentially imports substitution and of higher value).

In FY 14, Tata Steel touched its best ever high-end sales (comprising skin panel) of 226 kt (Kilo Tonnes), crossing the previous best of 192 kt achieved in FY'13.
In FY 15, as per the newsletter, the company intends to further strengthen its value proposition to the Automotive customers with a wider product range from TSCR.
"We have also made plans to ensure a smooth transition to JCAPCPL (Jamshedpur Continuous Annealing & Processing Company Private Limited) Products of CR Annealed range which will be produced by the Continuous Annealing line in a JV with Nippon Steel Sumitomo Metals Corporation.
The shares of the company closed at Rs 416.90, up 3.64 per cent from the previous close on the BSE.