"We are looking at an investment of between Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion) to Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) by 2010. The plans include expansion at the Jamshedpur plant and building new capacities in Orissa and Chatisgarh," B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
He also announced plans to acquire more steel companies in the South-East Asia and China. "Discussions are on with some of the companies and final decision will be taken soon," he added.
Asked about the source of investment, Mutturaman said significant amount of the investment would come from internal resources. With the debt-equity ratio of 0.4-1 the company has the leverage to raise funds from the market.
He, however, said there was no immediate plan to go to market to borrow funds. "This will be decided as and when the time comes."
Asked whether the entry of global steel majors like Posco and L N Mittal would affect Tata Steel's supermacy in the region, Muthuraman said, "The steel scenario is such that their entry is always welcome."
On the controversial export of iron ore from India, Muthuraman said the issue needs to be looked in the right perspective. The country has reserves of about 20 billion tonnes of iron ore but given the population and future per capita steel consumption, India has the potential to consume the entire reserves and rather these might be short in the long run.
Tata Steel has acquired land both in Orissa and Chhattisgarh to set up steel plants and would be applying for taking mines on lease.
Currently, Tata Steel produces five million tonnes of steel at Jamshedpur and would be adding another two million tonnes for which the company was planning to place orders for the machinery next month, Muthuraman said.
The expansion in Jamshedpur would be completed by 2008. In Orissa, Tata has announced setting up of a six million tonnes steel plant in two phases. First phase of three million tonnes would be completed by 2009, he said, adding the second phase would take another three years.
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