Burying the hatchet over Nano episode, Tata Sponge Iron to shift base from Odisha to Kolkata

Kolkata: Tata Sponge Iron Ltd, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has decided to shift its registered office from Keonjhar in Odisha to Kolkata, burying the hatchet over the Nano episode and its untimely exit from Singur in Bengal a decade ago. Industry experts claimed that the news, coinciding with the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, will be a feather on the cap of the Mamata Banerjee government, which has been trying to showcase Bengal as an ideal investment destination over the last few years. In a regulatory filing, Tata Sponge Iron said its board has “approved the shifting of the registered office of the company to West Bengal, subject to the approval of the members of the company and other regulatory authorities”. [caption id=“attachment_4338547” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] The company, which is scheduled to hold its 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 15 July in Keonjhar, has an installed sponge-iron-making capacity of 390,000 tonne a year and a 26 megawatt waste heat recovery power plant. In the stock exchange filing, the firm also said that its board has approved a proposal to change the name of ‘Tata Sponge Iron’ to ‘Tata Steel Long Products Limited’. Notably, Tata Sponge has recently acquired Kolkata- based Usha Martin’s steel business, which includes its Jamshedpur unit and an operative iron-ore mine, a developing coalmine, a captive power plant and certain land parcels, at a cost of Rs 4,090 crore. The company, which reported revenues of Rs 1,049.70 crore in the financial year ending March 31, 2018, was established in 1982 as a joint venture between Tata Steel and Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Orissa Ltd (Ipicol). In 1991, Tata Steel acquired Ipicol’s entire stake and Tata Sponge became an associate company of Tata Steel.