Tata Steel hungry for more

Tata Steel's $12.9-billion Corus buy does not mean the end of its acquisition ambitions as the steel major today said it along with Corus would go for more acquisitions "as and when it makes sense".

"Both the companies (Tata Steel and Corus) will undertake acquisitions as and when it makes sense," Tata Steel Chairman Ratan Tata said here while responding to a shareholder's question at the company's 100th Annual General Meeting.

He said the apprehensions in the market post-Corus acquisition that the company's financial performance would be impacted had been proved 'unfounded' and the share prices of the company has gone up by 20 per cent year-on-year for the past 10 years.

Stating that the financing part of the Corus buy has been tied up substantially, he said the combined entity now have 26 million tonnes steel making capacity, the sixth largest in the world.

Tata said the work on the company's proposed six million tonnes integrated greenfield steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa was progressing well and orders for some equipment have already been placed.

The company also has plans to set up greenfield projects in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand for which it has already signed MoUs with the respective governments and initiated dialogues with authorities concerned for allotment of new mines, land acquisition and rehabilitation packages.

On the brownfield expansion in Jharkhand, he said capacity addition to 6.8 million tonnes from five million tonnes now would be completed by next year and to 10 million tonnes by 2010.

Tata Steel has stated that it was exploring opportunities for setting up facilities for the extraction of heavy minerals, upgradation of ilmenite to synthetic rutile and a captive power plant at Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Tata, being bullish on the future of the steel industry, said the global demand for steel would go up to 1.3 billion tonnes by 2010 from 1.1 billion tonnes now, primarily on the Chinese demand.

Referring to domestic demand for steel, he said India's steel consumption would go up to 125 million tonnes by 2010 from 65 million tonnes now and the per capita consumption would go up to 78 kg from 38 kg now by 2015.

He also anticipates more consolidation in the global steel industry. The company would delist its shares from the Calcutta Stock Exchange, Tata said.

On the centenary year, Tata Steel Board has recommended a 130 per cent dividend and a special dividend of 25 per cent