Usha Martin embarks on 466 crore expansion plan
Kolkata,
May
06
:
India's
leading
manufacturer
of
steel
and
wire
ropes
'Usha
Martin',
which
has
recorded
20
per
cent
growth
in
business
in
2005-06,
has
recently
embarked
on
a
Rs
466
crore
expansion
plan
besides
being
up
for
a
number
of
global
acquisitions.
Sharing his future plans and financial results of the company whose global business turnover has touched nearly Rs 2,000 crores by March 31, Usha Martin Vice-Chairman Prasant Jhawar and Joint Managing Director P Bhattacharya said under the next phase of expansion the overall steel making capacity of Usha Martin's two plants in Ranchi and Hoshiarpur in Punjab would be enhanced to 600,000 tonnes per annum from the present of about 370,000 tonnes p.a. ''This apart we have finalised deal in acquiring an iron ore mine in Jharkhand at a cost of over 60 crores,'' Mr Jhawar said adding that this would go a long way in increasing the production capacity of the company and help reduce its production cost. ''With cost reduction through backward integration in our two coal mines, we also plan to go for some value added products in steel,'' hw said and hoped that the entire operation in this respect would be completed before this year end. Regarding his plan for global acquisition both Mr Jhawar and Dr Bhattacharya said talks were being finalised for acquiring a steel wire manufacturing unit in a South-east Asian country at a cost of Rs 60 crores, and distributing unit at Rotterdam in the Netherlands at a cost of 25 crores. Usha Martin had also acquired land and started building warehousing facility in Houston, USA, where it would also set up a wire rope manufacturing unit by December this year, Mr Jhawar said and informed that so far five million dollars had been invested for this project. Incidentally this would be Usha Martin's maiden project in the USA as the company already had presence in the U.K., Thailand, Malaysia and the UAE through a number of subsidiaries. These apart, Usha Martin had created a worldwide distribution and servicing network, including those in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and even in Australia, Mr Jhawar informed. Regarding the financial results of the company which was cleared by the Usha Martin Board of Directors here today, Mr Jhawar said during last fiscal the consolidated gross sales of the company along with its subsidiaries stood at Rs 1969.31 crores, registering a healthy growth of 19.46 per cent as on March 31. The consolidated profit before tax during the same fiscal was recorded at Rs 126.47 crores, up from Rs 70.68 crores recorded during the corresponding period of the previous year, Mr Jhawar said adding as on March 31 this year the net profitability also recorded an unprecedented growth of 68.43 per cent to Rs 84.35 crores from Rs 50.08 crores the previous year. To a query he said of the total sales, the contribution of Usha Martin steel units was Rs 1377.18 crores, while the rest came from the subsidiaries and the wire manufacturing units. In terms of profits the share of Usha Martin was to the tune of 72.12 per cent, Mr Jhawar informed. UNI |