Tata Steel has signed a contract with CMI FPE Ltd for supply of 6 High reversing cold mill to set up a 200,000 MT p.a. TMBP CRM#2 project in TCIL. Tinplate Company of India Limited (TCIL) in association with Tata Steel is set to double the production capacity of tinplate. TCIL has recently started operations of a 200,000 MT p.a. second tinning line and Tata Steel will supply the input required for the tinning line through its CRM#2 project.

The 6 High Reversing Cold mill will supply 220,000 MT p.a. of full hard cold rolled coils for making tinplate and is a part of TCIL’s 2nd CRM expansion plan. Today the contract between Tata Steel and CMI FPE Ltd was signed by Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel and Mr. Jean-Marc Kohlgruber, Chairman of CMI FPE Ltd, in Mumbai.

The agreement between the two companies comprises of two contracts as indicated below

1. Agreement for Design, Engineering, Manufacturing and supply of equipment.

2. Agreement for receiving, handling at site, preservation, erection, testing, start-up, commissioning and demonstration of performance test.
   
   

CMI FPE Ltd is scheduled to finish the project within 20 months and will comply with the stringent requirement of quality and capacity from single stand 6 high mill.

TATA Steel has worked separately with CMI Group and FPE for the supply of various lines for their cold rolling mill complexes in the past. This alliance between CMI and FPE will also help TATA Steel to benefit from technological innovations and world-class services.

Though India is one of the largest producers and consumers of food products, the percentage of produce currently processed and packed is 2% as compared to 24% - 50% in developed countries. The retailing boom in India along with encouraging Government policies and incentives is expected to lead to robust growth of food processing industry. Tinplate enjoys functional superiority over other alternatives in packaging of edibles because of decisively better shelf appeal, product preservation, barrier properties and bio- degradability.

About Tata Steel
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group (including Corus) is the world’s sixth largest steel producer with a crude steel capacity of over 28 million tonnes. It is now the world’s second most geographically diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries and commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Tata Steel Group with a turnover of USD 33 billion in 2007-2008 and with over 82,700 employees across four continents is a Fortune 500 Company. Tata Steel (India operations) has also been awarded the prestigious Deming Award for excellence in Total Quality Management. For further information, please visit www.tatasteel.com

About Tinplate Company of India Limited
Tinplate Company of India Limited is the largest producer of Tinplate in India. They also export 30% of their output to south East Asia and to the Middle East. Through continuous improvement they have been able to increase the capacity of Tinplate from 90,000 ton/ annum to 170,000 ton / annum. With the commissioning of the new ETL#2 line on 1st of Oct, TCIL’s capacity of tinplate has gone up to 380, 000 ton / annum.

About CMI FPE Ltd.
CMI group of Belgium is one of the largest Engineering Companies of Europe. They supply Cold rolled process lines like Pickling Lines, electrolytic annealing lines, continuous annealing lines, Galvanizing lines and colour coated lines. The state of art Galvanizing line CGL#2 of Tata Steel CRM has been supplied by CMI. CMI group of Belgium has recently taken over Flat Products Equipment (I) Ltd to form the CMI FPE Ltd in India. With Flat Products Equipment (I) Ltd they now have the capability to supply end to end solution in the cold rolling and coated products business.

Flat Products Equipment (I) Ltd was the largest producer of cold rolling mills and other cold rolling process line supplier in India. They have also supplied Mill and Process lines in South East Asia and in the Middle East. They were the suppliers of CGL#1 line of Tata Steel Cold rolling Mill Complex.