Tata Metaliks chairman T. Mukherjee in Calcutta on Tuesday. Pictrure by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 26: Tata Metaliks (TML) would firm up the contours of its diversification plan in the next two months, chairman T. Mukherjee said here today.

Speaking to reporters here after announcing the financial results, Mukherjee said the company would foray into steel making. It would produce long products.

?The new capacity could be between 500,000 and 800,000 tonnes. The investment is yet to be finalised as we are exploring putting up new as well as some second hand machines there,? he noted.

TML has sought land adjacent to its plant at Kharagpur. The issue is being discussed with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC).

TML, a leading producer of pig iron in the country, is a single product company. The foray into steel making will de-risk its business model.

The company plans to source sponge iron and mix it with liquid iron produced by it to manufacture long products like billets that is used in the production of structurals and TMT bars used in the construction industry.

Recently, it doubled the capacity to 320,000 tonnes from 163,000 tonnes following the start of second blast furnace in end February.

TML has a sizeable market share in the east, home to many foundry units, with 55 per cent of its production going to this market.

The company has also applied for iron ore mining lease for secured raw material source.

Profit at Rs 101 cr

For the year ended March 31, 2005, TML posted a profit before tax of Rs 101.54 crore on a turnover of Rs 312.27 crore as against a PBT of Rs 37.97 crore on a turnover of Rs 157.56 crore in 2003-04. The PBT grew by 167 per cent while the turnover was up by 98 per cent.