PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Aug 26: Tata Steel today celebrated its foundation day.
It was on August 26, 1907, the company was registered in India with an original capital of Rs 2,31,75,000. This day is celebrated as the Foundation Day of Tata Steel.
In 1908, the construction of the Jamshedpur works began, and steel production started on February 16, 1912.
It all began when J N Tata visited Manchester in 1867, he attended a lecture by Thomas Carlyle where Carlyle said, “The nation which gains control of iron, soon acquires control of gold.”
This statement had a profound effect on J N Tata who consequently decided to set up a steel mill in India.
However, the mining terms offered by the government were too restrictive, hence nothing came out of it. But, in 1899, Major Mahon in a report recommended that the steel industry be promoted in India. This changed it all.
As the company celebrates its 116th Foundation Day, Tata Steel has demonstrated a spirit of resilience and an ability to grow despite global changes.
It is one of the few players which are fully integrated – from mining to manufacturing to the marketing of finished products.
Today, Tata Steel has an annual crude steel capacity of 21.6 MnTPA in India and the company’s goal for this decade is to double the capacity to reach 40 MnTPA.
Tata Steel is currently accelerating the 5 MnTPA expansion programme at its Kalinganagar plant post which the capacity will go up from the existing 3 MnTPA to 8 MnTPA, which can be further expanded to 16 MnTPA.
A 6 MnTPA Pellet plant at Kalinganagar will be commissioned in FY23 followed by the Cold Roll Mill complex.
Tata Steel is also developing plans to expand its site in Meramandali which can be expanded from the current 5.6 MnTPA to 10 MnTPA.
The recent acquisition of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited provides a significant opportunity for Tata Steel to not only restart the 1 million tonnes per annum steel plant expeditiously but also begin work immediately to build a 4.5 million tonnes per annum state-of-the-art long products complex in the next few years, and further expand it to 10 million tonnes per annum by around 2030.
Additionally, the company is looking to add 0.75 million tonnes of capacity through scrap-based production through its first electric arc furnace which will be set up in Punjab, close to the scrap-generating Auto hub in Haryana.
Currently, the total iron ore production from the company’s captive mines in Noamundi in Jharkhand and in Katamati, Joda, and Khondbond blocks in Odisha are about 32 MnTPA.
The company has acquired iron ore reserves of around 100 million tonnes with Neelachal Ispat. Tata Steel is planning to augment its iron ore production from the current level of 32 million tonnes per annum to 48 million tonnes per annum by FY25 and then to 60-65 million tonnes per annum by 2030.
