Tata Steel on track for green transition in UK, Netherlands: Chandrasekaran

Tata Steel is confident of completing its transition to green steel manufacturing in the UK and Netherlands as per schedule, the company's Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Wednesday.

He made the remarks while addressing the shareholders at the company's 118th Annual General Meeting (AGM).

"...we remain confident that the transition to green steel making in the UK and the Netherlands will happen as per our plans, in the next few years," Chandrasekaran said.

In the UK, the company has progressed toward low-emission steelmaking with the decommissioning of two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, paving the way to transition to state-of-the-art Electric Arc Furnace-based steelmaking by fiscal 2028, supported by 500 million pounds of UK government funding.

In the Netherlands, the company is in discussions with the Dutch government for financial and policy-level support on our decarbonisation plan. Tata Steel has also launched a cost transformation programme, targeting savings of 500 million euros in fiscal 2026. These efforts aim to position Tata Steel Nederland as one of Europe's most efficient and sustainable steelmakers.

India-based Tata Steel owns the UK's largest steelworks of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) at Port Talbot in South Wales.

As part of its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, the company is transitioning from the blast furnace route to the low-emission electric arc furnace process, which will utilise the locally available scrap.

The company's upstream operations in the UK have been shut, and Tata Steel is using substrate from India and Netherlands operations to service existing customers in the UK.

In the Netherlands, Tata Steel owns a steel manufacturing plant at IJmuiden, which produced an estimated 6.75 MTPA of liquid steel in FY25.

Tata Steel Netherlands has an ambitious green steel transition plan under which one of the two blast furnaces will be replaced by a new Direct Reduced Iron furnace and Electric Arc Furnace by the end of this decade.

In his speech, the chairman also remembered Tata Group's chairman emeritus and veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, who passed away last year in October, and expressed grief over the loss of lives in the Air India plane mishap last month.

"There's a lot to talk about today. I must begin by acknowledging the heavy loss we have felt in recent months. Across the entire Tata Group, we honour those who lost their lives, along with all the families and loved ones affected by the Air India Flight 171 tragedy. Late last year, we also bid farewell to (Ratan) Tata," he said.

His unwavering commitment has been pivotal in transforming Tata Steel into a global steel company. Under his stewardship, the company not only grew in size and scale but reaffirmed its core values and responsibilities, Chandrasekaran said.