History of Tata steel

MKRakesh
(Ph.D Scholar)
Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidya peeth
Varanasi-220002
mkrakesh@rediffmail.com

The Tata Group is almost 150 years old. It currently comprises 96 operating
companies, which together employed some 357,000 people worldwide and
had revenues of US$ 72.5 billion[2](Feb 2009) billion in 2008-09. Tata is
active in seven major business lines: information systems and
communications, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer
products and chemicals. Its 28 publicly listed companies have a combined
market capitalisation of US$47.6 billion that is the second highest among
Indian business houses in the private sector, and a shareholder base of over 2
million. The Group has operations in more than 54 countries and its
companies export products and services to 120 nations.

Tata Steel (BSE: 500470), formerly known as TISCO and Tata Iron and
Steel Company Limited, is the world's sixth largest steel company, with an
annual crude steel capacity of 31 million tonnes. It is the largest private
sector steel company in India in terms of domestic production. Ranked 258th
on Fortune Global 500, it is based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India.[3][4] It is
part of Tata Group of companies. Tata Steel is also India's second-largest
and second-most profitable company in private sector with consolidated
revenues of Rs 1,32,110 crore and net profit of over Rs 12,350 crore during
the year ended March 31, 2008. [5][6]

Its main plant is located in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, with its recent

acquisitions, the company has become a multinational with operations in
various countries. The Jamshedpur plant contains the DCS supplied by
Honeywell.The registered office of Tata Steel is in Mumbai. The company
was also recognized as the world's best steel producer by World Steel
Dynamics in 2005.[7]

Tata Steel annually produces 18 million tonnes of steel in India and 52.32
million tonnes overseas, making it the fifth largest steel producer in the
world. It produced a record-breaking 10.32 million tonnes of salable steel in
its Jamshedpur works in 2009-10. The company's gross revenue in that
financial reporting year was Rs. 20196.24 crores. Its PBT was Rs.621261.65
crores and PAT was Rs.422212.15 crores in the same yar. In the year 2000,
the company was recognised as the world's lowest-cost producer of steel..

Tata Steel Limited, incorporated in 1907 by Shri Dorabji Tata, is India's

largest private sector steel company belonging to the Tata Group. The
company manufactures finished steel, both long and flat products like hot
and cold rolled coils and sheets, galvanized sheets, tubes, wire rods,
construction re-bars, rings and bearings. The company markets its products
in brands like "Tata Steelium, Tata Tiscon, Tata Pipes, etc. The company is
among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world. Its main plant is
located in Jamshedpur, having a manufacturing capacity of 5 MTPA (million
tonne per annum) while its processing units, captive iron ore and coal mines
are located in the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West
Bengal. With its head office located in Mumbai, the company functions
through a network consisting of trading arms and operation and projects
sites spread across countries in the continents of Asia, Europe and America.
Apart from Steel there are six Strategic Business Units or divisions for
Bearings, Ferro Alloys and Minerals, Rings and Agrico, Tata Growth Shop,
Tubes, and Wires.
It operates in more than 20 countries and has a commercial presence in over
50. In the past few years, Tata Steel has invested in Corus (UK),
Millennium Steel (renamed Tata Steel Thailand) and NatSteel Asia
(Singapore). With these, the company has created a manufacturing and
marketing network in Europe, South East Asia and the Pacific-rim countries.

Tata Steel is among the lowest cost producers of steel in the world and one
of the few select steel companies in the world that is EVA+ (Economic
Value Added). Its captive raw material resources and the state-of-the-art 4.9
mtpa (million tonne per annum) plant at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand State,
India gives it a competitive edge. With the acquisition of Corus, Tata steel
has become the fifth largest steel maker in the world. Soon the Jamshedpur
plant will expand its capacity from 4.9 mtpa to 7 mtpa by 2008.
The Company plans to further enhance its capacity, manifold through
organic growth and investments. Its associated / subsidiaries constitutes
about 24 mtpa making it’s total capacity about 29mtpa which is the fifth
largest in the world. Out of this the steel business comprising of Flat
Products, Long Products, RM Division, CSI Division, Shared Services
constitutes 85% of its business. The rest comprising of Tubes, Bearings,
Agrico Products constitutes the rest 15% business.

Tata Steel was established by Indian businessman Jamshedji Nusserwanji

Tata in 1907 (he died in 1904, before the project was completed). Tata Steel
introduced an 8-hour work day as early as in 1912 when only a 12-hour
work day was the legal requirement in Britain. It introduced leave-with-pay
in 1920, a practice that became legally binding upon employers in India only
in 1945. Similarly, Tata Steel started a Provident Fund for its employees as
early as in 1920, which became a law for all employers under the Provident
Fund Act only in 1952. Tata Steel's furnaces have never been disrupted on
account of a labour strike and and this is an enviable record.

How it all started?

By the end of 19th century, US steel output exceeded Britain’s and

Pittsburgh was the centre of the steel industry. Jamsetji met steel makers in
Pittsburgh to get the most advanced technology for his plant.

The Road to Sakchi Began in Pittsburgh ...

Guts and determination saw a pioneer build India’s first steel plant in the
early part of the 20th Century. It is said that he got the idea of building a
steel plant when he heard Thomas Carlyle declaring that "the nation which
gains control of iron soon acquires the control of gold" in a lecture in
Manchester.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Jamshedji

Tata went to Pittsburgh and asked geologist
Charles Page Perin to help him find the site to
build his dream - India’s first steel plant. The
search for a site rich in iron, coal, limestone and
water began in April 1904 in today’s Madhya Pradesh. The intrepid hunters
were C M Weld, Dorab Tata and Shapurji Saklatvala. It took nearly three
years of painstaking prospecting across vast stretches of inhospitable terrain
 for Dame Fortune to smile. And smile she did, near a
village called Sakchi(now part of Tatanagar), on the
densely forested stretches of the Chhota Nagpur
plateau.
The hunt was over. But a greater adventure was yet to begin. The task was
awesome. Building a steel plant was a titanic enterprise. And so was the
Steel City. But Jamshedji’s blueprint was clear. It
looked beyond a mere row of workers hutments. He
insisted upon building all the comforts and
conveniences a city could provide.

The Picture on the right side shows the Kalimati

railway station as it was in those days which was
later renamed Tatanagar. People engaged in the
gigantic task of building often had to encounter bears and elephants whose
legitimate territory they were usurping. According to one story the same
station was the maternity ward for a bear who delivered her cub in the
station master's room.
Jamshedpur is bounded by the Subarnrekha river on the north, the Kharkai
river on the west, the Bengal-Nagpur Railway in the south, and the Tata
Steel Works and other companies on the east. Thus the city has a well
defined boundary.
Tata Steel treated this well defined area as one unit from Town Planning
point of view and developed the city along with the Steel Works. The credit
of what the city is today goes entirely to Tata Steel.

This is what Charles Page Perin, a surveyor of international repute, said after
his first meeting with Jamsetji: "I was in the office when a stranger in a
strange garb entered. He walked in, leaned over my desk and looked at me.
Finally, he said in a deep voice, ‘Are you Charles Page Perin?’ I said, ‘Yes’.
"I believe I have found the man I have been looking for," he said. "I am
going to build a steel plant in India. I want you to take charge as my
consulting engineer. Kennedy, Sahlin and Co will build the steel plant
wherever you advise and I will foot the bill. Will you come to India with
me?’ I was dumbfounded. But you don’t know what character and force
radiated from his face and kindliness, too. ‘Well’, I said, ‘Yes, I’ll go.’ And I
did".
Though Jamsetji died before the plant was built, his sons saw to it that his
dream was realised. After years of exploration, the Tata team came across a
village named Sakchi lying at the meeting point of two rivers, Kharkai and
Subarnarekha. With abundant supply of iron, coal, limestone and water, the
place seemed to be the ideal choice.

First ingot tatasteel

Building a steel factory would take a lot of money. The Tata’s stayed away
from financiers in London and opted to raise money from the country riding
on the Swadeshi movement. When shares were issued, many people,
maharajas and the poor alike, lined up to be part of the first truly Indian
enterprise. The initial capital was for Rs 2,31,75,000 and within 21 days the
whole amount was raised.

Sadly, Jamsetji died eight years before production commenced at his

magnificent plant. Nevertheless, he would have had no doubts about its
success. His vision saw a remote village become the steel capital of India. It
is befitting that the Sakchi was renamed Jamshedpur, in his honour.

Jamsetji’s plant produced its first ingot of steel in 1912, eight years after his
death. Fredrick Upcott may not have sunk his teeth into the ingot, as he had
promised to, but the momentous event would certainly have made him eat
his words.
First blast furnace blown in 1911

Below is a chronological list of major business decisions in the history of

Tata Steel Ltd.

1882- At the age of 43, Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata read a report by German
Geologist, Ritter Von Schwartz On availability of Iron ore in Chanda
District in the central Province, which give him the idea of giving India a
steel plant.

14 Nov 1900- Jamshedji visited Secretary of states in England.

Jamshedji was in England seeing the secretary of states for India, Lord
George Hamilton. He decided to build a steel plant in India.

24 Feb 1904- P.N.Bose , an Indian Geologist who discovered the lofty

Gorumahisani hills with its input storehouse of iron-ore informed J.N.Tata
about his findings.

1907- The Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited was formed in 1907 at
Mumbai.
1907- C.M.Weld and Srinivasa Rao discovered the Village of Sachi at the
confluence of two river Subernekha and Khorkai and the railway station of
sachi.

1908- This year while the first stake was driven at Sachi, construction of
works also began here.

1911-Blast Furnace Begun Operation. The first blast furnace or the ‘A’ Blast
furnace went into operation successfully.

16 Feb 1912- The first ingot of steel rolled out of the Sachi plant amidst
much rejoicing. The Bar Mills commenced rolling in the month of October,
same year.

1917- During the year 1, 50,000 equity shares were issued at par and 26,250
deferred shares were issued at a premium of Rs.370 per share.

2 Jan 1919- Naming of Jamshedpur to Tatanagar.

Lord Chelmsford visited India to rename Sachi as Jamshedpur and Kalimati
railway station as Tatanagar.

5 Mar 1920- Joint Consultation introduced in India. Jamshedpur Labour

Association was formed this year and the principle of joint consultation was
introduced for the first time in India.

8 Aug 1925- Mahatma Gandhi, Chittranjan Das, C. F. Andrews visited

Jamshedpur to discuss Labour problems with R.D. Tata.

1936- Sir Jahagir Gandhi become first Indian GM

26 July 1938 JRD Tata succeeded Sir N. B. Saklatvala as the Chairman of
the Company.

1947- Personnel Department, First of its kind was established to steer

Labour welfare.

1956- Joint Consultation for working ‘together’ was introduced.

11 March 1958- Golden Jubilee Celebration, Jubilee Park was dedicated to

nation on completion of 50 years of the company.
1965- Mr. S.K.Nanavati becomes the Director-in-Charge. He becomes the
Managing Director of the Company in the year 1970.

1972- Mr. R.S.Pandey becomes the managing Director.

1973- With effect from 1st April, the wholly owned subsidiary, West Bokaro
Ltd., was amalgamated with the company.

1974- Russi H. Modi becomes the Managing Director.

1976- Tata steel amalgamation with West Bokaro Limited for coal Mine
Operation.

1983- During the year Indian Tube Company Limited was amalgamated
with the company. As a measure of diversification, the Company agreed to
purchase the bearings manufacturing plant of Metal Box India, Ltd. at
Kharagpur as a going concern with effect from 1st October.
During the same year, the company acquired the Barings Unit of the Metal
Box Company of India Limited and is today a leading manufacturer of Ball
and Tapered Roller Bearings with an annual installed capacity of over 5
million bearings.

1985- With effect from 1st October, Indian Tube Co. Ltd was amalgamated
with TISCO.

1987- On 2nd March, 300,000 tonne capacity bar and rod mill costing about
Rs.78 crores was commissioned under the second phase of modernisation.
On 11th August, approvals were received for investment of Rs.16 crores in
the Capital of Tata Timken Ltd., a company promoted by Tata Steel in
collaboration with Timken Co. USA, for the manufacture of bearings for the
automotive industry, industrial machinery and for the Indian Railways.

1988- During the period the company, installed a new sinter plant with a
capacity of 1.3 million tonnes per annum, a new coke over battery with
stamp charging facilities, a raw material bedding a blending yard, a high
speed bar and rod mill with a capacity of 3,00,000 tonnes per annum and
facilities to augment captive power generation by 60 MW
26 Jan1992- J.R.D. Tata was conferred Bharat Ratna for his contribution to
Aviation and industry as a whole.

1992- During the year company privately placed with UTI, LIC, Army
Group Insurance Fund and GIC and its subsidiaries 17.5% non-convertible
debentures worth Rs.185 crores. These debentures are redeemable at a
premium of 5% at the end of 7 years from the date of allotment of the
debentures.

19 Apr 1993- Mr. Ratan Tata took over as Chairman fron J.R.D.Tata.

1995-Achieved 3 million tones capacity of steel production.

1995- 30,018,246 No. of Equity shares allotted to Tata Sons Ltd. and their
associate Companies on exercise of warrants held by them.

1997- Tata Steel's international trading division was awarded the prestigious
ISO-9002 certification by the Indian Register Quality
Systems (IRQS). Tata Iron and Steel Company (Tisco) has entered into
technical tie-ups with two German companies - Lurgi Metallurgie and
Thyssen.

14 0ct 1997- Mr. J.J.Irani was conferred Honarary Knighthood by the Queen
of United Kingdom.

1998- As of March 31, 1998, 7,37,99,584 ordinary shares of the company

have been dematerialised. Tisco is acquiring the cold rolled steel unit of Rs
776 crore Tata SSL Ltd in Tarapur, Maharashtra.

1999- The year when the dotcom boom was at its peak and e-commerce was
the new buzzword doing the rounds was the time when Dr JJ Irani,
managing director, Tata Steel and Arvind Pande, chairman, SAIL, had a
spate of offers to join domestic and international e-commerce platforms for
the steel industry.
2000- Tata Steel, the flagship of the Tata group, has entered into an
understanding with Tata International to export 30 per cent of the production
at the steel major's new 1.2 million tonne cold rolling in Jamshedpur.
Tata Steel has tied up with the POSCO-Hyundai steel processing venture
located in Chennai for getting its cold rolled coils processed.
The Company has incorporated the first phase of mySAP.com, the
collaborative Internet business model, to strengthen customer relationship.
Tata Steel has launched its latest branded steel product -- Tata Tiscon - a
speciality construction grade steel which will be available in the retail
market.

26 Jan 2000-Ratan Tata was conferred Padma Bhusan.

2001- Tata SSL has become a subsidiary of Tata Iron and Steel Company,
following a successful open offer to the shareholders of TSSL.

2002- 2003 -Tata Iron & Steel co. Ltd. entered in to a power distribution
business. Tisco has began distributing power in Jamshedpur.

27 April 2003- ASPIRE-the quality journey by Tata Steel along with the one
million tonne expansion project was launched.

2 Jan 2004- The Indian Steel Wire Products Company was acquire this year
at Jamshedpur.

2004- Metaljunction (MJ)- the online trading and procurement joint venture
of Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India (SAIL)- has roped in UTI Bank to
start off own equipment for Tata Steel.
Tata Steel ranked among global companies in the world's most respected
companies survey, 2003 for corporate social responsibility
Tata Steel launched "Wiron", a branded galvanised wire, aiming at a sales
target of three lakh tonnes
Tata Steel buys Singapore's NatSteel
Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) signs definitive agreement to form a
50:50 joint venture for setting up a port at Dhamra in Orissa on October 29,
2004.

4Jun 2005- Tata Steel signed an MoU for setting up a five million tonne per
annum Greenfield integrated steel plant at the Jagdishpur district of
Chhattisgarh.
2005- Tata Iron and Steel Company Ltd signs Joint Venture Agreements
with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation
Organization to join them in proposed steel-making projects and mining
operations in Iran. Tata Steel has signed a memorandum of understanding
with Nippon Steel Corporation of Japan for its proposed 6 million tonne per
annum steel plant in Kalinganagar, in Jajpur district of Orissa.
Hoogly Met Coke and Power Co Ltd, a joint venture between Tata Steel
and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, has been allotted 180
acres of land for its proposed metallurgical coke and power plant project at
Haldia.
Tata Steel sets up steel retail store Steeljunction.

2006- Tata steel sets up Jiggling and hydro-cyclone plant.

Tisco establishes processing unit at Noamundi mine.

2 April 2007- Integration of Tata Steel and Corus was accomplished at US $

12 Billion, making Tata Steel the 6th largest Producer globally and the
second-most geographically diversified steel producer in the world.

2007- Tata Steel’s hard-fought, 6.2-billion-pound acquisition of Corus, the

seven-year-old Anglo-Dutch company formerly known as the mighty British
Steel, has created the world’s fifth largest steelmaker, the second most
global steel company and dramatically put India on the corporate world’s
takeover map.
Tata Steel completed 100 years of glorious existence on August 26, 2007.

22 April 2008- Centenary Postage Stamp Released to commemorate Tata

Steel Centenary year.