Finnish firm in talks with Tata Motors

Ruukki Metals, an Euro 2.4 billion Finnish manufacturer of special steel, is looking at the Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the automotive segment to market its special steel and semi-finished components, a top company official said.

“We presently sell our special grade steel to over 100 companies in the construction equipment segment in India. We are in talks with Tata Motors for the supply of special steel to make passenger cars,” Jouni Rattya, vice president, Ruukki Metals said.

The company is presently looking to consolidate its presence in the Indian construction equipment market. The company has opened an office in Mumbai to expand its reach in the Indian market, he said.

“We have already launched our special grade steel which is used to manufacture a wide range of construction equipment in India. We are looking to strengthen our position with a sales office to directly deal with our customers. We will deal exclusively with Indian customers and provide them customised solutions, components, semi-finished parts and accessories,” Rattya said.

The range of special steel products include high-strength structural steels (Optim), wear-resistant steels (Raex), ultra-high strength formable steels (Litec) and special coated products with a full offering of steel products extending from standard to special steel products.

Talking to Business Standard, on the sidelines of Excon 2011, an international exhibition on construction equipment, here on Thursday, Rattya said the company has entered into marketing agreements with about 100 customers in India that include Tata Motors, Hyva, Caterpillar, BEML, JCBL Marrel, Telcon among others.

The company has tied up with Steelforce, an Indian company to distribute its special steel and products. Going forward, the company aims to market its special steel to automotive companies like passenger car manufacturers. Presently, it is targeting only construction equipment manufacturers, which require special steel which can withstand high-level of loads and, wear and tear.

“We aim to grow the share of special steels in the next few years to account for 60 per cent of the steel business in India. Though Europe is our core area of operation, we are increasingly looking at Brazil, India and Turkey. Presently, we have 23 per cent of our special steel sales volume coming from these countries and we aim to double it in the next two to three years,” Rattya said.

Ruukki has operations in 27 countries and employs 11,700 people.