India's largest and the world's sixth largest steel producer, Tata Steel, has announced its annual production and sales figures for the financial year 2008-09 ended on March 31, 2009.
For the fiscal year in question, the company produced 6.254 million mt of hot metal, 5.646 million mt of crude steel and 5.375 million mt of saleable steel, respectively up by 14 percent, 13 percent and 11 percent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, Tata Steel's overall sales increased by nine percent to 5.231 million mt in FY 2008-09 compared to the previous year. Tata Steel's long product sales were up by 25 percent to two million mt, while its flat product sales rose by 1.2 percent to the record figure of 3.22 million mt.
In addition, Tata Steel said it would begin production at the Sedibang mine in South Africa from next year. Also, the company is currently focusing on Canada and looking at coal blocks in Mozambique.
The Sedibang mine has a reserve of 50 million mt of iron ore, while the Canadian iron ore mines are likely to have a reserve of 100 million mt. On the other hand, the coal block in Mozambique, in which Tata Steel has a 35 percent stake, is in its exploratory stage with the reserve estimated at 2.1 billion mt.