Kubota Corporation from Japan has made India its manufacturing hub of ductile pipes to cater to its foreign market spread across West Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Tata Metaliks Kubota Pipes Ltd, a joint venture company of Tata Metaliks, Kubota Corporation and Metal One, will manufacture 110, 000 tonne per annum ductile pipes of which 20% would be put to Kubota’s export network.
B Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, unveiled the trial run of the ductile iron pipe plant on Saturday, which would mainly cater to the government bodies engaged in water supplies.
Rajesh Mishra, chief executive officer, said the cost of manufacturing ductile pipes in Japan is significantly high, which makes Japan’s export uncompetitive in the Southeast Asian, Middle East and African markets.
The JV includes a condition that 20% of the plant’s total production would cater to these markets and so the JV company has to export despite high domestic demands.
While the demand for ductile pipes is 800,000 tonne per annum, India currently produces 500,000 tonne.
The plant would scale up its capacity to 2,50,000 tonne per annum to cater to the Indian market, Mishra said although he did not want to give a timeline to it.
The plant has been set up at an investment of Rs 180 crore, with the Tata Metaliks having 51%, Kubota 44% and Metal One 5% holdings. Mishra said that the plant was expected to start commercial production from June.