Ambarish Mukherjee

New Delhi , March 8

UTTAM Galva Steels Ltd has embarked upon a major expansion plan to double its cold rolling capacity to one million tonnes by March 2006 from the present 5 lakh tonnes.

The company also plans to increase its galvanising capacity from 3.5 lakh tonnes to 7 million tonnes. It is also putting up a colour coating line with an annual capacity of 80,000 tonnes.

The company, which now exports to 110 countries, aims to have around 75 per cent of its revenues from exports in the next two-three years.

According to the Director, Mr Ankit Miglani, "The company would now be focussing more on exports. This fiscal our total exports would be around Rs 1,250-1,300 crore on a turnover of around Rs 2,000 crore.

"The cost of expansion is approximately Rs 350 crore and we are mostly going in for domestic borrowings. Currently, the cost of funds for the company is 7.5 per cent. But once we take all the new loans that would be required for completing the expansion plans, our cost of borrowings would go up to 8.5 per cent," Mr Miglani said.

The company would be setting up two more cold rolling mills with a capacity of 2.5 lakh tonnes each at its facilities at Khapoli near Mumbai. Both these mills are expected to go on stream soon and would add to the company's capacities in the coming fiscal. However, the total expansion would be completed only in March 2006, Mr Miglani said.

Uttam Galva has three galvanising lines with an annual capacity of 3.5 lakh tonnes and cold rolling facility with a capacity of five lakh tonnes. After converting 3.5 lakh tonnes of its own cold rolled steel into galvanised steel, the remaining 1.5 lakh tonnes are converted to value-added grades in CRCA coils, cut to length sheets and also sold in the overseas markets.

The company proposes to follow the same model post-expansion also, Mr Miglani said.

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