On June 24, Indian steelmaker Tata Steel announced that it will increase production of auto grade steel by 20 percent to 1.2 million mt this fiscal year due to increased steel demand from the automotive sector.
Tata Steel expects to continue increasing its capacity in auto steel in the next few years as well. It will also start operations at a new 0.6 million mt capacity joint venture plant with Japanese steelmaker Nippon for high strength auto steel by 2013.
"In 2010-11, we supplied one million mt of auto grade steel and this year we are aiming to touch 1.2 million mt. We have to increase capacity every year by 15-20 percent to meet the growing demand from the auto sector," said H.M. Nerurkar, managing director of Tata Steel.
Tata Steel's supplies make up for more than 40 percent of the domestic steel used in the automotive industry in India.
The steelmaker has been selected as the only Indian firm in Fortune magazine's 2011 list of the World's Most Admired Companies.