TATA Metaliks Ltd announced that 110,000 tonnes per annum ductile iron pipe manufacturing facility of TATA Metaliks Kubota Pipes Ltd, a subsidiary of TATA Metaliks Ltd, has been inaugurated at Kharagpur on March 7th 2009 by Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel Ltd. The plant is set up at an investment of INR 185 crore within the premises of TATA Metaliks' Pig Iron plant at Kharagpur.
Trial runs at the DI Pipe Plant have commenced and it expects to start commercial production of ductile iron pipes from April 2009. TATA Metaliks Kubota Pipes Ltd a 51:44:5 JV between TATA Metaliks Ltd, Japan’s Kubota Corporation and Metal One Corporation. Mr Harsh K Jha MD of TATA Metaliks on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of the unit said that the plant would annually produce 011 million tonne of DI pipes in the first phase, which would be ramped up to over 2 million tonne later. Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel said that the unit is a part of the diversification plan of TML and would cater to the high demand of ductile iron pipes. He said that the plant is commissioned in the middle of a global recession and we take it as a challenge to ramp up production capacity and quality with help from the Kubota Corporation, the world leader in the area.
Mr Mishra CEO of the new unit said “That ductile iron pipes are mostly required in supplying water and the centre and different state governments would be the largest consumer of the pipes. He said that the annual demand for DI pipes in the country is nearly 8 million tonne of which only 5 million tonne is produced currently.” He added that as part of the agreement with Kubota, TMKPL would export 20% of the total produce to West Asia, South East Asian countries and Africa. The low cost of production in the India, as compared with Japan, would give Kubota an edge in supplying the offshore markets. Metal One would market the pipes for export.
