Tata Steel plans to enhance the capacity of its Kalinganagar project in Odisha to 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) against 6 mtpa proposed earlier.

“Tata Steel had plans to produce six million tonnes in two phases originally, but we are now discussing to enhance the capacity to eight million tonnes,” Tata Steel Managing Director (India and South East Asia) T V Narendran said.

“We will have to make investment for the second phase and we are discussing how and when to invest for the purpose. The issue will be put before the Tata Board in a couple of months,” he said after unfurling the national flag to mark the Republic Day function at the Tata works here today.

The company’s performance is expected to improve in the last quarter compared to the previous two quarters, he said.

“We witnessed a slowdown in demand for steel in November due to demonetisation but the situation has improved,” he said.

Normally, the period from January to June remained good for the steel sector, Narendran added.

Referring to the cashless campaign launched by the government, he said that 80-90 per cent business of Tata Steel has been cashless.

“In fact, our business up to dealer level is 100 per cent cashless but dealing from dealers to rural customers is cash-driven,” Narendran said.

Though Tata Steel’s production capacity has doubled to 10 million tonnes since 2005, its emission levels came down now compared to what it was in 2005, he further said.

Regretting an incident in the tube division claiming the life of a contract labourer recently, Narendran said the company has invested a huge amount on safety at workplace during the last 10 years particularly on training and awareness among workers.

This safety-related incident had taken place after a gap of 14 months, he said, adding that the company needs to do a lot more in this front.

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