Tata SSL, India's largest manufacturer of steel wires, is planning to set up a 90,000 tonne greenfield wire plant at Jamshedpur.
The company, which enjoys a domestic market share of around 30 per cent, has also trained its sights on international acquisitions and joint ventures with European and south-east Asian companies.
Tata SSL, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has also tied up with a Hungarian company to manufacture 15,000 tonne of steel wire in that country and then export it to other international markets. The company at present meets the entire bead wire requirements of multinational tyre company Continental for its Sweden plant.
Continental is now looking at Tata SSL as a bead wire partner for its other plants across the world.
Nimo Punwani, managing director of Tata SSL, said, "We are planning to set up a greenfield plant at Jamshedpur. We have, however, not finalised the exact location for the project. Currently, we are in the process of shrinking operations and downsizing the workforce at our Borivili unit in Mumbai. We are also planning to shift a portion of the plant and machinery from our Mumbai unit to Jamshedpur."
He refused to comment on the planned expenditure. The company has already sold part of land at its Mumbai plant.
The company, which reported a net profit of around Rs 90 lakh during the third quarter of 2001-02, compared with a loss of Rs 46 lakh during the same period in the previous year, is looking at positioning itself as a global player and plans to be among the top five steel wire manufacturers in the world.
The company has received an order to supply 4,000 tonne of steel wire for the Bandra-Worli trans-harbour sea link project in Mumbai.
The idea is to leverage the steel made available by Tata Steel, Punwani said. The company has an installed capacity of 168,100 tonne of steel wires, 200,000 tonne of steel wire rods, 1,50,000 tonne of mild and special billets and 40,000 tonne of flat-rolled products.
