Addressing the annual press conference on production and sales here on Monday, Mr Irani said the company has sufficient surplus cash, which could be reinvested. However, he did not specify the sectors in which the company intended to invest.

Asked in which sectors the company plans to invest, he said, "It's a strategic issue and we can not disclose anything, until we finalise the areas... it could be both in steel and non-steel areas."

"If we find an area profitable, we can get into the that business considering our cash flow. We may also consider repaying our existing loans," he said.

As for steelmaking, he said Tisco will continue to modernise its units. It has plans to modernise one of the existing blast furnaces. For this, it will invest about Rs 200 crore.

In 1999-2000, Tisco invested Rs 1,073 crore, and the next year Rs 675 crore. It has plans to spend Rs 300 crore a year for modernising its units.

Tisco increased its sales from 3.19 million tonne in 1999-2000 to 3.38 mt in 2000-01. Domestic sales went up from 2.69 mt to 2.97 mt, a growth of 11 per cent. However, its exports fell by 15 per cent from 0.5 mt to 0.43 mt during the period. Inventory declined from 272,000 tonne on April 1, 2000, to 265,000 tonne on March 31, 2001.

Production of saleable steel increased from 3.29 mt to 3.49 mt, a growth of six per cent.

Energy consumption has declined by 4.9 per cent - from 7.78 gigacals per tonne of crude steel to 7.4. Raw material consumption fell from 3.93 tonne per tonne of saleable steel to 3.71. Power consumption, however, went up from 3.58 kwh per tonne of saleable steel to 3.83. As for the new cold rolling mill, Tisco managing director designate B Muthuraman said the plant is scheduled to reach full capacity use by June this year and has already captured 40 per cent of the domestic CR market.