118th Annual General Meeting (AGM) Speech by Natarajan Chandrasekaran - Chairman, Tata Steel

There’s a lot to talk about today. I must begin by acknowledging the heavy loss we have felt in recent months. Across the entire Tata Group, we honor those who lost their lives, along with all the families and loved ones affected by the Air India Flight 171 tragedy.

Late last year, we also bid farewell to Mr. Tata. His unwavering commitment has been pivotal in transforming Tata Steel into a global steel company. Under his stewardship, the company not only grew in size and scale but reaffirmed its core values and responsibilities. He was a friend and someone whose guidance I sought, whose humanity I admired and whose focus on the importance of details I will always carry with me. He will be dearly missed.

Before we turn to the business of this meeting, please allow me share a few thoughts on the performance of the Company.

The macro narrative in 2025 has been shaped by rising geopolitical uncertainties and shifting trade dynamics. As a result, global GDP growth is now projected to slow down to 2.3% from 2.8% in 2024.

Despite this volatility, India has continued to outperform, with an estimated GDP growth of 6.5% in fiscal 2025, backed by strong demographic fundamentals, prudent economic management, and a series of structural reforms contributing to a favourable environment for both consumption and private investment.

Against this generalized backdrop of uncertainty, global steel production held steady at 1.8 billion tonnes. Despite a decline in coking coal prices, persistent supply chain volatility and subdued global realizations kept margins under pressure. Still, India’s crude steel output rose by 4.7%, and consumption rose by 10.2% year-on-year, driven by robust construction activity, rapid urbanization, and industrial expansion.

Tata Steel achieved record performance in both production and deliveries on a standalone and consolidated level.

In India, this came on the back of near full capacity utilisation across sites and the successful commissioning of India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar. Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited, also delivered a strong performance with ₹1,000 crore in EBITDA and positive free cash flows.

In the UK, we progressed toward low-emission steelmaking with the decommissioning of two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, paving the way to transition to state-of-the-art Electric Arc Furnace based steelmaking by fiscal 2028, supported by £500 million of the UK Government funding.

In the Netherlands, the Company is in discussions with the Dutch Government for financial and policy-level support on our decarbonization plan. The Company has also launched a cost transformation program targeting savings of €500 million in fiscal 2026. These efforts aim to position Tata Steel Nederland as one of Europe’s most efficient and sustainable steelmakers.

And we remain confident that the transition to the green steel making in UK and in Netherlands will happen as per our plans, in the next few years.

Going forward, we need to continue to focus on our safety culture, cost competitiveness and operating efficiencies across geographies. Also, given our ambition for growth in India and transformation in Europe we need to keep building our capabilities to execute large and complex capital projects. We will also keep our focus on cash flows so that we have a healthy balance sheet that prepares us well for the future.

On a consolidated basis, crude steel production reached 30.92 million tonnes, while deliveries grew to 30.96 million tonnes, reflecting year-on-year growth of 3.3% and 5.3% respectively. Revenues stood at ₹2,18,543 crore and EBITDA grew by 10% y-o-y to ₹25,802 crore. Consolidated PAT was ₹3,174 crore. Operating cash flows rose by 16% to approximately ₹23,500 crore, providing the Company with the financial strength to continue investing in its future strategy and growth.

The Board of Directors has recommended a dividend of ₹3.60 per equity share for fiscal 2025.

I want to thank all the board of directors for their support, and you shareholders for your support and encouragement to the management and the board all through. Thank you very much.

For queries and information

Sarvesh Kumar,
Chief Corporate Communications, Tata Steel,
E-mail : sarvesh.kumar@tatasteel.com

About Tata Steel

• Tata Steel group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 35 million tonnes per annum.
• It is one of the world's most geographically diversified steel producers, with operations and commercial presence across the world.
• The group recorded a consolidated turnover of around US$26 billion in the financial year ending March 31, 2025.
• A Great Place to Work-Certified^TM organisation, Tata Steel Limited, together with its subsidiaries, associates, and joint ventures, is spread across five continents with an employee base of over 76,000.
• Tata Steel has announced its major sustainability objectives including Net Zero by 2045.
• The Company has been on a multi-year digital-enabled business transformation journey intending to be the leader in ‘Digital Steel making’. The Company has received the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse recognition for its Jamshedpur, Kalinganagar, and IJmuiden Plants. Tata Steel has also been recognised with the ‘Digital Enterprise of India – Steel’ Award 2024 by Economic Times CIO.
• The Company has been recognised with the World Economic Forum’s Global Diversity Equity & Inclusion Lighthouse 2023.
• The Company has been a part of the DJSI Emerging Markets Index since 2012 and has been consistently ranked among the top 10 steel companies in the DJSI Corporate Sustainability Assessment since 2016.
• Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur Plant is India’s first site to receive ResponsibleSteel^TM Certification. Subsequently, its Kalinganagar and Meramandali plants have also received the certification. In India, Tata Steel now has more than 90% of its steel production from ResponsibleSteel^TM certified sites.
• Received Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best performing integrated steel plant for 2016-17, 2025 Steel Sustainability Champion recognition from worldsteel for eight years in a row, 2023 Climate Change Leadership Award by CDP, Top performer in Iron and Steel sector in Dun & Bradstreet's India's top 500 companies 2022, Ranked as the 2024 most valuable Mining and Metals brand in India by Brand Finance, ‘Most Ethical Company’ award 2021 from Ethisphere Institute, and ‘Best Corporate for Promotion of Sports’ recognition at the Sportstar Aces Awards 2024.
• Received the 2023 Global ERM (Enterprise Risk Management) Award of Distinction at the RIMS ERM Conference 2023, ‘Masters of Risk – Risk Technology’ recognition at The India Risk Management Awards, and ICSI Business Responsibility and Sustainability Award 2023 for its first Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR), Excellence in Financial Reporting FY20 from ICAI, among several others.

Photographs: Management and Plant facilities

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Website: www.tatasteel.com and www.wealsomaketomorrow.com

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