Arcelormittal Nippon Steel India Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Essar Steel company was incorporated on June1, 1976. A part of Essar Global Limited, Essar Steel is a global producer of steel with a footprint covering India, Canada, USA, and Asia.

It is a fully integrated flat carbon steel manufacturer--from iron ore to ready-to-market products. Its products find wide acceptance in highly discerning consumer sectors, such as automotive, white goods, construction, engineering and shipbuilding. It is the India’s largest exporter of flat steel products and aims to reach 25 MTPA capacity.

Essar Steel has a current capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). With its aggressive expansion plans in India as well as in Asia and the America, its capacity will go up to 20 to 25 MTPA. Its products find wide acceptance in highly discerning consumer sectors, such as automotive, white goods, construction, engineering and shipbuilding.

It is the India’s largest exporter of flat products, selling almost one-third of our production to the highly demanding US and European markets, and to the growing markets of South East Asia and the Middle East. A number of major client companies have approved its steel for their use, including Caterpillar, Hyundai, Swaraj Mazda, the Konkan Railway and Maruti Suzuki. Essar Steel has acquired extensive quality accreditations. Its lean team gives it one of the highest productivities and lowest manpower costs among steel plants internationally.

It is totally integrated - from raw material to finished products, adding value at every stage of the manufacturing process. It is the first Indian company to brand flat products, under the name '24-carat steel'.

Company’s plants include-

• Hazira Steel Complex- Essar Steel operates the world's largest gas-based hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant with a production capacity of 5.1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). The plant uses state-of-the-art technology, which ensures high quality raw material for the steel plant. Essar Steel is one of the world's lowest cost producers of HBI on a per tonne basis. The plant is supported by a captive power plant of 32MW, which operates at 100% capacity. The complex includes two flying shear lines of capacity 0.2 MTPA each, and two slitting lines of capacity 0.2 MTPA each, catering to the market of plates and sheets.
• Essar Steel Algoma Inc- Established in 1901, Essar Steel Algoma Inc. is an integrated steel producer based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Formerly operating as Algoma Steel, it was acquired in June 2007 by Essar Steel Holdings Limited. Its current production capacity is 2.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). Algoma’s cornerstone asset, the Direct Strip Production Complex (DSPC) is the newest continuous, thin slab caster in North America, positioning Algoma as a leading supplier of high strength, light gauge steel. In addition, Algoma’s heat-treat plate facility provides a full range of quality steel grades for abrasion resistant, ballistic and other specialty plate applications. Other key mills at the plant include a slabcaster, a 106-inch strip mill (one of the widest in North America), a 166-inch plate mill, a cold mill, a just-in-time blanking facility and a welded shapes and profiles division.
• PT Essar Indonesia- It commenced its commercial operations in 1997. With a current rolling capacity of 400,000 MT per annum, PT Essar has a state-of-the-art galvanizing line with a capacity of 150,000 metric tonne per annum. The company focuses on manufacturing value-added soft cold rolled products.
• Visakhapatnam Complex- Essar Steel has built an 8.0 MTPA iron ore pelletisation plant in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India with technology supplied by Lurgi GmbH of Germany.
• Essar Steel Minnesota LLC- It has access to iron ore resources of over 1.4 billion tonnes. The plant will have an annual capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) when completed.
• Essar Steel Caribbean Limited ( ESCL)- It is a 2.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant for flat products in the strategically located Point Lisas Industrial Zone, Couva, Trinidad.
• Paradeep facility- It is a 6 MTPA integrated steel project located in Orissa, India.

Essar Steel is the first steel company to set up the only retail chain for steel products under the brand name Essar Steel Hypermart. It has a strong network of over 60 Steel Hypermarts. The outlets are conveniently located across the length and breadth of the country to cater to the customised requirements of small and medium enterprises. The hypermarts offer a comprehensive range of flat steel products for a variety of applications. Other product lines, like longs, structural, and tubular, are also being developed to make Essar Steel Hypermart a one-stop-shop for steel products.

Product range of the company includes:

Hot rolled products-

• Coils- In raw as well as pickled and oiled form of 180 mm - 2000 mm/7.08' - 78.74' width, 1.60 mm - 20.00 mm/0.063' - 0.79' thickness and 25 MT (max) weight.
• Plates- of 5-20mm thickness, 750-2000 mm width, 2500-12000 mm length, and as per DIN 1016 (in mm) thickness tolerance.
• Sheets- Essar Steel's high precision shearing line (Bronx-UK) turns out top quality steel sheets meeting demanding international standards.
• Shot Blasted and Primed- Shot blasted and painted steel from Essar offer the cleanest surfaces and a comprehensive environment protection to its steel.

Cold rolled products- Hot rolled coils from Essar Steel are used to produce cold rolled products in the coils/ plates and sheets form. Cold Rolled Closed Annealed (CRCA)/Cold Rolled Full Hard (CRFH) type, of 600 mm - 1525 mm/23.63' - 60.04' width, 0.14 mm - 3.175 mm/0.0055' - 0.125' thickness with Matte, Bright, Dull surface finish.

Galvanized products- Galvanized Plain (GP)/Galvanized Corrugated (GC) type, 600 mm - 1370 mm/23.62' - 53.94' width, (BMT) 0.14 mm - 3.175 mm/0.0055' - 0.125' thickness, with Regular spangle, Minimised Spangle, Zero Spangle surface finish.

Essar Global Limited is a diversified business corporation with a balanced portfolio of assets in the manufacturing and services sectors of Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping Ports & Logistics, and Construction. Essar Global has offices in Asia, Africa, Europe and the America.

Awards/Achievements

Essar Steel's high precision shearing line (SMS-USA) produces top quality steel plates that meet demanding international standards. Essar Steel is the only Indian company to receive the prestigious TUV Rhineland certificate for quality plates.

Recent developments

Essar Steel in May 2009 has inaugurated its fourth Steel Service Centre facility in India at Bahadurgarh near New Delhi. With the commissioning of this facility, the combined capacity of Essar Steel’s four service centres now stands at 2.5 million tonnes per annum, which is the country’s largest.

Future plans

• Essar Steel is the largest steel producer in western India, with a current capacity of 4.6 MTPA at Hazira, Gujarat, and plans to increase this to 9 MTPA.
• Essar Steel Algoma’s current production capacity is 2.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). Work on expanding capacity to 4 MTPA is underway.
• Essar Steel plans to start the first phase of production from its proposed $ 1.1 billion steel plant at Minnesota in the US by 2011.