Recession Forces Tml To Shelve Foundry Unit Plan

Tata Metaliks Ltd (TML) has put its plans of setting up an automotive casting foundry unit on the backburner.

T Mukherjee, chairman, said at the company's annual general meeting here today, "Given the present condition of the automobile industry, we have decided not to go ahead with it."

TML was scouting for a strategic partner for setting up the foundry, which would have required high investment and technology. However, the company was unable to find a suitable ally.

The company has also increased it production capacity to 133,000 tonne. With the completion of the capacity enhancement project, the company has targeted 20 per cent higher sales this year.

Mukherjee said the company was looking at increasing its production capacity further. TML was also putting in place certain strategic and tactical initiatives to enhance its market share in the pig-iron industry.

During the quarter under review, foundry grade pig iron production at 31,631 tonne increased by 10 per cent over the corresponding period last year, the highest ever quarterly production.

Similar despatches improved from 30,199 tonne in the first quarter of the last year to 33,836 tonne, an increase of 12 per cent.

Turnover increased from Rs 27.82 crore in the first quarter of the previous year to Rs 34.75 crore this year, an increase of 25 per cent.

As a result, the profit before tax increased to Rs 5.02 crore (previous year Rs 1.88 crore) which is the highest quarterly profit ever recorded.