Tata buy in China

Tatas plan unit in China

The Financial Express (India)

10th Aug 2008

Tata Refractories Ltd, a Tata Steel associate that has been operating a magnesite-based refractory unit in China since early 2007, is now planning to set up a bauxite-based refractory plant in that country as also a unit in West Asia.

Tata Refractories' existing plant in China, set up with an investment of $9 million, began production on January 1, 2007. It is located in Bayuquan in north-east China near the port city of Dalian in Liaoning province.

CD Kamath, managing director of Tata Refractories, told FE that the new unit in China would come up close to bauxite deposits. "We are planning to have a bauxite-based unit in a bauxite-rich place in China," he said, declining to reveal any details. He was talking to FE after giving a talk at the XLRI on doing business in China.

China, the sole supplier of raw natural magnesite to the world, also has good bauxite deposits to support aluminum as well as other industries like bauxite-based refractory products.

He said West Asia could be another location because energy was cheap in the region. "It is all in the mind stage yet (the West Asia project) and we have yet to put it on paper," Kamath said. The company recently invested Rs 75 crore in two tranches to double the capacity of its Chinese plant from 30,000 tonne per annum to 64,000tpa.