Tata Steel to delay projects, barring Orissa & Jamshedpur

India's largest private sector steel maker Tata Steel today said it will re-prioritise its capital expenditure in view of the global economic meltdown and give preference to "high-return projects" while deferring the rest.

"We will re-phase our capital expenditure, giving higher preference to high-return projects like Jamshedpur and Orissa, while delaying some of the other projects to ensure that our liquidity position continues to remain strong," Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman said here.

Announcing the company's financial results for the second quarter and the six months ended September 30, he said Tata Steel will accord greater emphasis to raw material projects to secure resources faster than what it had planned earlier.

Elaborating on the company's near future plans for India, Muthuraman said Tata Steel is committed to save Rs 300 crore in next five months by reducing operational expenditures and overhead costs.

World's sixth largest steel producer Tata Steel has lined up ambitious expansion plans in India.

Besides, augmenting the capacity of its Jamshedpur plant to 10.5 million tonne from the present 6.8 million tonne by 2010, the company is in process of setting up greenfield projects in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

While, in Jharkhand it proposes to invest about Rs 42,000 crore for a 12 million tonne integrated steel plant, in Orissa it intends to pump in nearly Rs 22,000 crore for a 6 million tonne unit.

It also plans to invest Rs 18,000 crore for setting up a 5 million tonne steel plant in Chhattisgarh.

For all the proposed greenfield projects, the company claims it is in the process of acquiring land.