SynopsisTata Steel anticipates its UK operations will achieve break-even this fiscal year. This positive outlook stems from recovering steel prices and implemented cost-saving measures. In India, the company plans significant production capacity expansion solely through brownfield development. This strategic move aims to align with market growth and maintain market share.Tata Steel CEO TV NarendranA recovery in steel prices in Europe, along with cost take-outs, should see Tata Steel's UK operations break even at an operating level this fiscal, company's CEO, TV Narendran, and chief financial officer, Koushik Chatterjee, told Nikita Periwal in an interview. In India, Tata Steel aims to reach 48 million tonnes of production capacity solely through brownfield expansion, they said.Edited excerpts:Tell us about Europe after European carbon border mechanisms and in context of Netherlands?TV Narendran: Europe is doing what the US has already done--trying to protect the domestic industry. With quotas, safeguards and now Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism(CBAM), prices in Europe have gone up. Traditionally, European prices used to be about $100 lower than US, which then rose to $200-$300, and now this gap is reducing again. A lot of investments have also been announced on infrastructure in Europe, so we expect the market to stabilise both on prices and demand. In the Netherlands, we are dealing with some issues on the regulatory side, but overall it has always been a self-sufficient business for us, never requiring any support from India over the last 18 years. In the UK, prices have started going up, and with the cost take-outs, this quarter should be better than the last, and we hope to breakeven at an EBITDA level in Q2 or Q3.How have conditions evolved in Europe?Narendran:The big change is that there is a greater appreciation of the fact that Europe needs a steel industry. Labour costs are always a challenge in these economies, which is why we are always looking at restructuring-whether it is fixed cost or labour cost. In some sense, it is a part of staying competitive in Europe, especially because it is not a growth market.Do you foresee any liabilities in the Netherlands?Koushik Chatterjee: It is still early for provisioning of any sort, because impact will be defined on the agreement with regulator and the other stakeholders. There were some penalties given to us, but there are no additional liabilities on the horizon at this point of time.Why is there no timeline for the 40-million tonnes capacity you plan to have in India?Chatterjee: If you look at everything together, we can go up to 45-50 million tonnes. It is about the sequence and the actual investment. We have changed our way of working, where the announcement is done after a lot of work is done, rather than before the work is done. If the market is growing 7-8% every year, we will bring in capacity to ensure it aligns with that and our market share also remains intact or grows in specific areas.Tell us about your expansion plans in India.Narendran: We can go to 13 million tonnes from 8 million in Kalinganagar, but we will announce it after the engineering is done and we get clearances. Kalinganagar can further go up to 16 million tonnes, Neelachal to 10 million tonnes, Meramandali to 10 million tonnes, Jamshedpur is 11 million tonnes, and with Ludhiana, that's 48 million tonnes without Maharashtra. We will also be building Electric Arc Furnaces in south and west India in the next 3-4 years.What is the capex planned for the current fiscal?Chatterjee: We will be spending ₹20,000 crore this year, and the mix between India and overseas is 65% and 35%.How is the company dividing time between the two regions?Narendran: The returns on the time we spend in India are better, but we could end up losing more money than desired if we don't spend time on European operations. There are also a lot of learnings from Europe, because many issues that we deal with there are the ones we will deal with in India at some point in time. While India is structurally a much stronger business, we also have mining and engineering here, which takes a fair amount of time.Read More News on...moreless