Steel demand to grow on supportive policy reforms: Tata Steel Chairman
Tata Steel Chairman N. Chandrasekaran said on Wednesday that steel demand is expected to grow in the country due to infrastructure development, rapid urbanization and supportive policy reforms.
Speaking at the company’s 116th Annual General Meeting, he said domestic steel consumption rose 10 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 117 million in FY23.
The steel industry has also been affected by fluctuations in the global environment, which has affected the balance of steel supply and demand and led to fluctuating steel prices.
However, India appears to be an exception in the global steel arena, mainly due to strong government spending and active consumption, he said.
Steel consumption in India grew by more than 10 percent year-on-year to 117 metric tons (million tons) in FY23.
He said, “India will remain a major consumer in the global steel industry due to infrastructure development, rapid urbanization, and supportive policy reforms. We expect steel demand growth to keep pace with GDP growth over the next decade.”
Regarding the company’s financial performance in FY23, Chandrasekaran, President of Tata Sons, said it was affected by higher cost structures due to higher energy costs, emissions and volatile raw material prices.
In FY23, the consolidated revenue of the company was Rs.2,43,353 crore, which was marginally lower as compared to the Rs.2,43,959 crore in the last year period. This was due to lower steel deliveries across geographies with the exception of European operations.
Consolidated profit after tax in the last financial year was Rs.8,075 crore as compared to Rs.41,749 crore in the same period last year.
“In our UK operations, in connection with the £6 billion British Steel pension scheme, we have fully insured pension liabilities.
“This means that the cash flows of future pension payments to the retirees are guaranteed by the insurance company. This was done at no cash cost to the company and removed any future risk to the company from mismatches of assets and liabilities,” Chandrasekaran said.
He said Tata Steel Nederland and Tata Steel UK will continue to focus on expanding steel delivery, improving yield performance, optimizing the trade mix and reducing operating costs.
(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is generated automatically from a shared feed.)