The ground breaking ceremony for the 600,000 tonne per annum Continuous Annealing & Processing Line Project took place at the TATA Steel Works.

This follows the JV agreement signed between TATA Steel and Nippon Steel in January 2011 to setup India’s first CAPL for the production of automotive cold rolled steels at Jamshedpur.

Mr HM Nerurkar MD of TATA Steel, Mr S Higuchi MD Flat Products of Nippon Steel Corporation, Mr Raghunath Pandey president of TATA Workers’ Union were present on the occasion along with union office bearers, senior officials and employees from TATA Steel, Nippon Steel, Nippon Steel Engineering Corporation and Larsen & Toubro.

This facility will address the growing localization needs of Indian automotive customers for high grade cold rolled steel sheet and contribute to further expansion of the Indian automobile industry.

Mr Nerurkar said “This project will not only set benchmarks in product quality but also in new product development and customer service.”

Mr Higuchi said “I would like to reiterate that safety is of utmost priority in the course of construction and commissioning of this project.”