Tata Steel is expanding presence in the Asia-Pacific region and improving profitability by increasing efficiency in the operatives there.

T.V. Narendran, Managing Director, told Business Line that the company has decided to enter Indonesia with downstream products in early 2014-15.

Tata Steel is present in China, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia through conversion, re-rolling and fabrication operations.

However, he said this region’s markets still remain low investment and low margin yielding geographies for Tata Steel.

The company’s priorities lay in the high margin Indian market, where its investment commitments are also significantly higher.

The Chinese, Australian and South-East Asian markets are placed under the umbrella of Tata Steel’s Singapore-located subsidiary NatSteel Holdings.

The other entities in the region, Tata Steel (Thailand) Public Co and The Siam Industrial Wire, restrict their domain to Thailand only, Narendran said.

The group makes and markets reinforcement bars, wire rods, wire mesh, prefabricated cages and steel couplers in these markets.

Meanwhile, ad film guru Prahlad Kakkar urged the IIM-Calcutta students to get a feel of “aam aadmi” and “aam” India before plunging into the “placement and packages” mode.

“The business of business is risk. Take a risk in the beginning when you nothing to lose and everything to gain”.

He egged on the “young bright minds” to get out of academic glass house and dive into the real world with passion to make a difference.

> jayanta.mallick@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics