Tata Steel Ltd. said on Wednesday that its India operations and deliveries had no direct sales exposure to the United States amid worries over the impact of President Donald Trump's tariff policies that have upended global trade.
The company's US volume exposure stands at 1,000–2,000 tonnes of duct and galvanised wires and at 10,000–15,000 tonnes in select speciality steel products on an annual basis, Chief Financial Officer Koushik Chatterjee told analysts during a meeting.
The aggregate volume exposure to the US stands below 0.1% of deliveries in the last financial year, he said.
In March, the US started collecting a 25% import duty on all raw steel and aluminum as well as on products. Trump also unleashed a base tariff of 10% and additional duties on specific countries last week.
Chatterjee said the total US exposure of Tata Steel's UK operations stood at 88,000 tonnes out of a 3-million-tonne portfolio. Therefore, exposure to the US stands very low on a portfolio basis.
The Netherlands operations have downstream subsidiaries in the US and, likewise, have a modest exposure to the world's largest economy.
Rejig Of Netherlands Unit
The Netherlands unit that serves the European market has a steel-making capacity of 7 million tonnes and is working with the government for de-carbonisation efforts to adhere to green norms, according to the CFO.
"The company is taking proactive measures to make sure operations are fit for the purpose. It is a challenging operating environment in Europe and has impacted steel spreads. We have launched a transformation programme that targets efficiency and lowering fixed costs," Chatterjee said.
Tata Steel Nederland's one-year reorganisation programme aims to reduce controllable costs by 15% as compared to the last fiscal and will shed 1,600 jobs. The programme will address raw material costs, product mix, repair and maintenance, volumes, yields and controllable costs like employee costs.
The unit's third-quarter expenses stood at Rs 4,271 crore, while income was Rs 13,867 crore.
The company has an ambitious green steel transition plan under which one of the two blast furnaces will be replaced by a new direct reduced iron furnace and electric arc furnace by the end of this decade, a statement said.
Shares of Tata Steel closed 2.3% lower at Rs 127.2 apiece on the BSE, compared to a 0.5% decline in the benchmark Sensex. The stock has fallen nearly 7% so far this year and 23% in the last 12 months.
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