N Chandrasekaran says Tata Steel will develop into an intellectual property-intensive, noncyclical materials producer,

22 Jun 2022 , 10:09 AM

According to N Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata Steel, in the annual report, “Tata Steel has the ambition to expand its company in knowledge and intellectual property intensive and non-cyclical new materials.”

According to TV Narendran, the CEO and MD of Tata Steel, and Koushik Chatterjee, the executive director and CFO of the firm, the steelmaking company had already built a graphene manufacturing capacity of 100 tonnes annually and was investing in the production of medicinal materials on a large scale. According to them, the medical materials segment in India has a large market opportunity.

Hydroxyapatite, a calcium phosphate-based ceramic utilized in the orthopaedic coating on implants, dental implants, bone fillers, cosmetics, and consumer products, will be the company’s first stop in the medical material category.

The corporation and Kerala’s Digital University and Centre for Materials for Electronics Technologies (C-MET) inked a memorandum of understanding last week to establish a research centre for graphene in the South Indian state.

Chandrasekaran noted in his discussion of the macroeconomic environment that the continuous geopolitical tensions, the re-imposition of lockdowns in China, global inflation, and ongoing supply shortages could have a negative impact on the growth of the global GDP in 2022.

Following a reduction of over Rs24,000 crore in consolidated debt in the fiscal year ended March, the 115-year-old company will now have to strike a balance between debt reduction and investing in innovative companies, according to Narendran and Chatterjee.

The company would devote the majority of its capital during FY23 to the purchase of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL). The business won the auction to purchase NINL for Rs12,100 crore earlier this year.

Since March 2020, the plant has not been in use. Following the completion of the transaction, Tata Steel anticipates launching operations within six months and aims to ramp up output to its rated capacity of 1.1 million tonnes annually within a year.