TISCO and Chicago's Inland Steel Industries Enter into Joint Venture

By RAMESH SOPARAWALA

INDIA POST CHICAGO BUREAU

CHICAGO, IL: A leading Chicago-based steel company, Inland Steel Industries, has entered into a joint venture deal with Indian steel manufacturer, Tata Iron and Steel Company, for establishing industrial materials-management centers in India.

David Allen, a spokesman of the Chicago company, said that the Indian firm named Tata-Ryerson Ltd., will have equal equity participation from the two joint owners and it would begin its operations this year in Jamshedpur and Pune in India.

"This is strictly a marketing arrangement and no manufacturing activity is involved and we plan tomore centers at other industrial sites, Gopalpur that is a place where Tata steel's shore-based integrated steel plant is set up, Delhi and Hosur," he told India Post.

These centers, he pointed out, will process and distribute steel to rapidly growing industries like automobile, appliance and equipment manufacturers. "In addition to offering cost-reduction opportunities to large industries, the Indian company will also use state-of-art information technology, along with its processing and distribution services, to manage the supply chains of smaller customers," he stated.

The new company will have its slitters, cut-to-length lines, saws, plate-burning tables and other equipment designed to provide precision processed parts for its customers. It will also process and distribute metals other than steel , and will provide custom services to increasingly sophisticated industrial customers, he added.

Ryerson Tull, Inc. a subsidiary of Inland Steel has 60 such centers in the US and operates several more through its Ryerson de Mexico, a joint venture with AHMSA, a giant steel manufacturer in Mexico. The new joint venture in India was formally signed last week in Mumbai. The Chicago company was represented by Robert Darnall, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Inland Steel Industries while Tata Steel was represented by its Chairman, Ratan Tata.

Tata Steel, based in Jamshedpur, is India's largest private sector integrated steel plant with sales at $1.7 billion a year and is the flagship of the Tata Group, India's leading industrial house with current sales at $7 billion. Inland Steel Industries is a materials-management, logistics and technical services company with headquarters in Chicago and had recorded sales of $4.6 billion last year.

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