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 26,250deferred 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 incollaboration with Timken Co. USA, for the manufacture of bearings for theautomotive 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 QualitySystems (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 venturelocated 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 - aspeciality 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 respectedcompanies survey, 2003 for corporate social responsibilityTata Steel launched "Wiron", a branded galvanised wire, aiming at a salestarget of three lakh tonnesTata Steel buys Singapore's NatSteelTata 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 RenovationOrganization to join them in proposed steel-making projects and miningoperations 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.