Tata Steel Looking at Increasing Tyre Wire Production
India’s largest steel producer, Tata Steel, is looking at making new acquisitions throughout Asia in order to expand capacity and establish a stronger foothold as a tyre industry supplier. According to the Indian business newspaper Mint, Tata Steel’s managing director B. Muthuraman has disclosed the company is looking to purchase both finished steel product companies and iron ore or coal mines in order to boost its annual 30 million tonne steel manufacturing capacity by more than 50 per cent within a decade.
“We are looking for acquisitions in the steel wires business in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Apart from expansion in capacity, we also want to move into high grade, higher-value add wires used in tyre cords and oil tempered wires through acquisitions,” said Muthuraman. While the company is currently the world’s sixth largest steel wire manufacturer, producing half a million tonnes per annum, at present their principal tyre industry product is bead wire.