The Hindu Business Line : Tata Metaliks plans extra blast furnace at Kharagpur

Tata Metaliks plans to put up an additional blast furnace at Kharagpur as part of its proposal to set up a steel plant. The latter, which will require about 350 acres of land, is facing hurdles because of slow land acquisition.

The Rs 500-crore turnover company, which has sought the West Bengal Government's assistance in this regard, has so far seen merely 60 acres being acquired by the State — a situation that is not making its case any stronger.

The State Government has given its full co-operation till date, said Dr T. Mukherjee, Chairman, Tata Metaliks, adding that land acquisition was generally a very slow process that involved sensitive issues.

The company, which has planned a capacity of 5 lakh tonnes at the proposed steel plant, is at this juncture not willing to disclose the kind of funds it requires for the project.

Turnover up 60%

Tata Metaliks on Wednesdayannounced that it has recorded a turnover of Rs 504 crore in fiscal 2005-06, an increase of over 60 per cent over the previous year. Profit, however, has come down, the PBT being Rs 68.79 crore, down from Rs 101.72 crore recorded last year. The company has announced a Rs 6 per share dividend (60 per cent) for fiscal 2005-06.

The company has attributed the decline to an increase in raw material prices and decreasing trend in pig iron prices. It has, however, pointed out that pig iron prices have lately witnessed an upswing.

Record output

Tata Metaliks, Dr Mukherjee indicated, has clocked a record production of 3.27 lakh tonnes of hot metal as against 1.76 lakh tonnes in 2004-05.

This is on account of its two blast furnaces at Kharagpur in West Bengal and another at Redi in Maharashtra. Incidentally, the total desptach of iron ore for the past fiscal has increased by 90 per cent.

"We have achieved 14,000 tonnes of hot metal production at the newly acquired furnace at Redi," he told newspersons, adding that the company will need to invest about Rs 30 crore for refurbishing its unit.

Tata Metaliks, which has set a production target of 6.5 lakh tonnes of hot metal by early 2007-08, hopes to become the world's leading producer of foundry-grade pig iron.