Nippon Steel Joins Japanese Rivals in Indian Auto Steel Push

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30 Jan 2010

Nippon Steel Corp. followed its two largest Japanese rivals in forging Indian automobile steel ventures to tap surging demand in Asia’s third-biggest car market as domestic sales decline.
Nippon Steel, the world’s second-largest steelmaker, agreed yesterday to invest as much as 35 billion yen ($388 million) with Tata Steel Ltd. to make auto-grade steel in India by March 2013. JFE Holdings Inc., Japan’s No. 2 steelmaker, said in November it will cooperate with Mumbai-based JSW Steel Ltd., while Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. said last month it may buy a stake in Bhushan Steel Ltd.’s proposed mill in eastern India.
Car sales in India grew at the fastest pace in three years in 2009, as Japan’s auto market contracted to a 32-year low. Having Indian partners allows the steelmakers to skirt government delays, said Bharath S., an analyst in Chennai at Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
“This is the easy way out for all companies who want to be in India and are aware of the practical problems here,” he said. “You will hear of more global companies wanting to pick up stakes in the India growth story.” Sundaram BNP holds 1.31 million Tata Steel shares, according to Bloomberg data.
Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India Ltd., and JSW Steel raised prices this month on higher demand. Higher material costs prompted Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and the Indian unit of Hyundai Motor Co. to increase prices of some of their cars.
Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG have also expanded factories and introduced new models.
‘On a Roll’
“India’s automobile industry is on a roll,” Tata Steel Managing Director H.M. Nerurkar said in an interview yesterday in Mumbai.
India’s $1.2 trillion economy may expand 6.9 percent in the year ending March 31, according to the median estimate of a survey conducted in December of forecasters such as the New Delhi-based National Council of Applied Economic Research.
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, and South Korea’s Posco, Asia’s most profitable mill, have failed for the past four years to buy land to build plants in the eastern states of Jharkhand and Orissa that would have more than doubled India’s production.
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal bought a 5.6 percent stake in Uttam Galva Steels Ltd. in September, after failing to secure land for two $10 billion factories in the country.
ArcelorMittal said in October 2005 it plans to set up a factory with a capacity of 12 million metric tons in Jharkhand and the following year it announced another plant of the same size in neighboring Orissa state.
JFE-JSW
Tokyo-based JFE Steel will also collaborate with JSW Steel, India’s third-largest producer, on a planned factory in West Bengal, JSW Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said on Nov. 19.
The companies will consider buying stakes in each other later, JFE said in a statement on its Web site that day, without giving more details.
“Indian automotive industry has done distinctively well compared with the rest of the world and so has the two-wheeler industry,” Nerurkar said.
Bhushan, a maker of automotive steel, offered Sumitomo as much as a 40 percent share in a factory it plans to build in West Bengal. Sumitomo is in talks with Bhushan about the venture and will decide on a stake purchase by the middle of next year, Sumitomo President Hiroshi Tomono said last month.
India’s steel demand is beating a global slump as federal stimulus packages and declining interest rates boost consumer spending. Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and other carmakers will add at least six more minicars and hatchbacks in the next two years as automakers invest $6 billion in India.
At least 10 models were unveiled at the Delhi Auto Show on Jan. 7 as global carmakers rush to India to boost sales and counter a slump in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Companies including Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. plan to use the nation as a hub for small-car exports.
“We need technology to produce high strength cold-rolled steel,” Nerurkar said. “This value-added automotive steel has a premium of $20-odd per ton.”

Source: Bloomberg