Tata Metaliks to double capacity

Tata Metaliks will double its pig iron capacity to around 700,000 million tonne in 2-3 years' time.

Harsh K Jha, managing director Tata Metaliks said, the company could adopt organic or inorganic strategies for growth.

If Tata Metaliks adopted the brownfield expansion route, then the expansion programme would cost Rs 200 crore and greenfield could cost Rs 300-350 crore.

The company had been scouting for acquisitions and was looking for a foothold in the western and southern parts of the country. Jha said, Tata Metaliks had identified some companies but refused to divulge whether dialogue had been initiated.

The company's current capacity for pig iron was 320,000 tonne and was expecting to register 350,000 this year, by debottlenecking.

Tata Metaliks was also weighing the option of diversifying into steel making like billets. The company had appointed M N Dastur & Co for the feasibility study which was expected to be completed in around two months.

Jha said, the company was toying with a capacity of 0.4-0.8 million tonne for the steel plant. He said, the investment would depend on the configuration of the plant which was being worked on.

The steel operations would be a strategic business unit (SBU) of Tata Metaliks.

The company was currently operating out of a 200 acre plot in Kharagpur and had sought an additional 500 acres from the state government.

Jha said, initially the entire billet production would be consumed by Tata Steel, which held 46.66 per cent in the company. Eventually, Tata Metaliks would cater to other customers.

Tata Metaliks posted a turnover of Rs 288 crore in 2004-05 and was eyeing around Rs 550 crore, at the end of the financial year.

The company today instituted an extension of its office-the helpdesk-in the foundry belt of Howrah. The helpdesk would provide an end-to-end service bouquet-supplying feedstock, cupola related services, helping optimise production processes, facilitating chemical analysis of the raw materials, among others.