THE TRANSFORMER

T.V. NARENDRAN HAS REINVENTED AND RESHAPED THE TATA STEEL HE INHERITED INTO ONE THAT IS A POTENT FORCE NOT JUST FOR MAKING STEEL, BUT ALSO FOR MAKING DEEP MOVES ON FINANCIAL FORTITUDE AND CULTURAL INCLUSIVITY

- ASHISH RUKHAIYAR & KRISHNA GOPALAN

TATA STEEL HAS a glorious past. Established in India in 1907, the company has the distinction of being Asia’s first integrated private steel producer. And with a history spanning over a century, the steel major has come a long way, with its footprint spread across India, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

T.V. Narendran, however is not new to Tata Steel. A veteran of nearly 35 years—with the past 10 years as CEO & MD—the IIM Kolkata alumnus knows that he has to constantly be on his toes to be ahead of the curve in an industry that is known to go through periodic up and down cycles. “Our ability to pick up [an] asset, integrate it, turn it around, unlock value, has got honed in the past three years,” he says, sitting in a large conference room at the iconic Bombay House, the headquarters of the Tata group and a building whose own history goes back to 1924. “For us, it was obvious that we have to scale up the business and there was opportunity in India. When we look at Tata Steel as a portfolio of sites or a portfolio of assets, our strongest point is our footprint in India, which in a cyclical industry like ours, had an 18-20 per cent Ebitda margin, even at the lowest point in the cycle,” explains Narendran.

Indeed, the recent financial numbers corroborate this. For instance, in Q3FY23, deliveries of its India business grew seven per cent year-on-year, even as Tata Steel Europe registered a dip of nearly eight per cent.

And with Narendran at the helm, the firm’s production in India has also grown manifold, even as it plans to nearly double its production capacity to 40 million tonnes (MT) by 2030, from the 21-22 MT it produces currently. More importantly, Narendran is confident that the higher production capacity can be achieved purely through proper execution, and from its existing sites.