Tata Steel expansion plan on full swing; not to cut prod

Country's largest private sector steel producer Tata Steel today said its expansion plan is going on full swing and has no plan to scale down production despite softening of commodity prices across the world. "Tata Steel expansion going on in full swing. There is no plan to cut down production," Tata Sons Director J J Irani said here. "We are in for difficult period ongoing projects would come. Money should not be a problem," he said. However, he added, "Ratan Tata has sent a general message that we have to be careful in the present scenario". The leader of the over 62-billion dollar group has asked his top honchos to focus on conserving cash and put off expansion through inorganic route unless the acquisitions were strategic in nature. Recently, the steel producer announced setting up of a new blast furnace at its Jamshedpur unit as part of the Rs 14,000-crore brownfield expansion to augment its production capacity to 10 million tonne in over two years. The 'I-blast furnace', which would have a capacity to make 3.05 million tonne of hot metal per annum, is likely to be commissioned by November 2010. In addition to increasing the capacity of its existing unit, the steel major is in process of setting up greenfield projects in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. While in Jharkhand it proposes to invest about Rs 42,000 crore for a 12 million tonne integrated steel plant, in Orissa it intends to pump in nearly Rs 22,000 crore for a 6 million tonne unit.