Demand for colour coated products is expected to grow at 10 per cent over 10 years

01 Sep 2017 CW Team

- Riten Choudhury, Managing Director, Tata BlueScope Steel The Indian coated steel and building products market has registered a noticeable growth in the past few years. Rapid growth plans in the industrial sector and high spends pledged by the government on infrastructure projects like metros, railways, smart cities, etc, are aimed towards boosting the overall coated steel consumption. Riten Choudhury, Managing Director, Tata BlueScope Steel, shares more on the market and the company... How do you view the market for coated steel and related building products? How has this impacted the growth of your products? Coated steel market for roof and wall cladding is estimated at around 2 million tonne in FY18 with an expected CAGR of 6 per cent, and the demand for colour coated products is expected to grow at 10 per cent over the next 10 years. Zn-Al coated steel has witnessed growth due to inter-material conversion from asbestos to metal coated and intra material-conversion from bare material to colour coated. In a performance comparison, a Zn-Al coated material has four times longer life than that of 275GSM Zn coated material. Increase in per capita coated steel consumption from 3.8 kg in 2010 to 5 kg in 2016 has made a significant impact in our industry. Our DURASHINE® brand, which was launched in 2008, has shown a double digit CAGR in the past 10 years and established a leadership position in the retail segment. COLORBOND® and LYSAGHT® brands, best known within the projects market, are consistently delivering superior value to customers and are market leaders within the premium segments. For which of your products are you witnessing maximum demand and from which sectors? Major demand for our colour coated roofing products come from residential and SME segments. Our flagship retail brand DURASHINE® has established immense credibility through consistent leadership position in the industry by offering a wide range of colour coated sheets for multiple applications such as institutional buildings, resorts, go-downs, colleges, etc. LYSAGHT® is consistently focusing on new product development to meet the growing demand of the project segment; and is supported by LYSAGHT® Technology centre, Australia. LYSAGHT® has been introducing new products such as LYSAGHT® FLEXLOK®, which provides design flexibility and architectural appeal to the entire building. COLORBOND® has recently introduced Spectrum series, which consist of metallic colours that adds to the overall beauty of the building. We have also developed customised solution by introducing Camouflage pattern to address to the growing demand of the defense sector. Tell us about the company's manufacturing facilities in India and its focus and investment in R&D. Catering to the demand for high quality coated steel products across India and SAARC nations, we have five state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities across the country and one in Sri-Lanka, ensuring easy product availability, on-time delivery with consistency in quality. We have metal coating and colour coating lines at our Jamshedpur plant, with an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh and 1.5 lakh tonne, respectively. Our downstream facilities have capacities of over 2.5 lakh tonne per annum. Our plants are fully integrated and equipped to offer customised products and solutions such as metal coated and colour coated coils, roofing, walling, decking, purlin and PEB. We have a state-of-the-art testing lab, which tests products for corrosion resistance, mechanical properties and paint performance. The products undergo outdoor tests in corrosive environments to further establish durability and longevity. We closely work with the global paint suppliers to develop our exclusive colour range and are constantly improving our existing paint system to cater to the customer demands. Our JV partner BlueScope Steel, Australia, commands a leadership position in coating technology across the globe, enabling us to develop and offer innovative, customer-centric products. BlueScope Steel has recently introduced ACTIVTATE® Technology for ZINCALUME® steel by adding magnesium into aluminium-zinc alloy coating. ZINCALUME® AM 125 improves the galvanic protection by activating aluminium, hence further increasing the corrosion resistance of the product. Going forward, we are looking at increasing our colour coating capacity and downstream facilities.