Tata Metaliks to finalise growth strategy soon

Kolkata, July 26 :  Tata Metaliks, which is looking to become a full-fledged ductile iron (DI) pipe company, will finalise a growth strategy in the next two-three months, a company official said on Wednesday."In next couple of months, we will finalise on what we want to do as next phase of growth. The work we are doing right now is like assessing the market and product mix and all of that. These things will take 2-3 months," the company's Chairman Kaushik Chatterjee said here.

The company operates in two integral business segments, namely, foundry pig iron and ductile iron (DI) Pipes, post-amalgamation of Tata Metaliks DI Pipes Limited.While pig iron production growth was in line with the steel production, ductile iron pipe production showed a robust growth of about 11-12 per cent, he said.Chatterjee remained optimistic about the DI pipes market and hoped to maintain 12-13 per cent growth in demand.

"We are getting organic or inorganic growth strategy ready in the next few months. Over a period of time we will become a full-fledged ductile pipe company in years to come," Chatterjee told shareholders at the company's 27th Annual General Meeting.He said the growth in DI Pipes is largely driven by government's focus on infrastructure projects in the country including AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) and Smart cities.

"In the medium- to long-term, compared to the pig iron market, the DI pipe sector in India is expected to see robust growth on the back of increased urbanisation and increased government spending with thrust on water, sanitation and irrigation infrastructure," Chatterjee said.

According to him, the company will evaluate options between greenfield and brownfield expansion in ductile iron pipes sector for the long-term.

Presently, the company produces two lakh tonne of DI pipes and technically has potential to expand up to 0.5-million-tonne capacity while hot metal capacity remains at 0.5 million tonnes at the Kharagpur facility.

It recorded a turnover of Rs 1,410 crore in 2016-17 as compared to Rs 1,390 crore in the previous fiscal and its net profit stood at Rs 116 crore in 2016-17, which was four per cent higher than that of FY 2015-16.