Tata Steel Ltd.

Tata Steel, the world's seventh-largest steelmaker, has seen sales from its Indian operations rising 14 percent in the April-June period to 1.59 million tonnes. Of the group's total annual global capacity of about 28 million tones which includes Corus, Europe's second-largest steelmaker, the Indian operations account for about a quarter.

Sales of long steel products, used mostly in construction industry, rose 16 percent during the quarter, while sales of flat products, used in cars and consumer goods, rose 12 percent. The company's crude steel production in India stood at 1.79 million tonnes for the quarter, up 10 percent.

Recently, Tata Steel was likely to increase production of auto-grade steel by 20% to 1.2 million tonnes this fiscal, due to increased demand for steel from the auto sector. 

The company supplied one million tonnes of auto grade steel in 2010-11 and this year it’s aiming to touch 1.2 million tonnes. The company plans to increase capacity every year by 15-20% to meet the growing demand from the auto sector. The steelmaker expects to continue a similar capacity increase in auto steel across the next few years, while also starting operations at a new 0.6 million tonnes capacity joint venture plant with Japanese steelmaker Nippon for high strength auto steel by 2013.