The Hindu Business Line : Tata BlueScope's Jamshedpur unit to be ready in 2009

NEW FACILITY: (From left) Mr Hemant Nerurkar, Director, Tata BlueScope Steel; Ms Kathryn Fagg, Chairperson; and Mr Chetan Tolia, Managing Director, at the inauguration of the company's manufacturing facility near Chennai on Monday. — Bijoy Ghosh

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Chennai, Jan. 29 Work on the Rs 880-crore `coated steels' plant of Tata BlueScope Ltd at Jamshedpur will begin in March, the company's Managing Director, Mr Chetan Tolia, told journalists here on Monday.

When complete in 2009, the plant will produce steel sheets coated with aluminium, zinc or colour paints. These sheets will be used in constructing steel buildings. The facility will have an annual metallic coating capacity of 2,50,000 tonnes and paint line capacity of 1,50,000 tonnes.

Tata Bluescope, an equal joint venture of Tata Steel and BlueScope Steel of Australia, already has three plants in India, including the one near Chennai that was inaugurated on Monday. (The other two are near Pune and Delhi.) These plants produce light steel structures and roof and wall cladding solutions.

Tata BlueScope will be investing Rs 1,300 crore in all its four units. Mr Tolia said that 2006-07 was first year of its operations and the company would end the year with a turnover of Rs 100 crore.

He said that steel was increasingly being used as the basic material for buildings, especially industrial and commercial buildings.

At present, the share of steel buildings in India was negligible. But it is expected to increase because constructing a steel building is easier and faster. A steel building reflects sunlight better and is therefore more thermally efficient.

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