Tata Steel has signed a contract with CMI FPE Ltd for the supply of six high-reversing cold rolling mills (CRM) for the setting up of a 2 lakh tonne tin mill black plate (TMBP) unit on the premises of Tinplate Company of India Ltd (TCIL), an associate company of the steel major here.
TCIL, which commissioned its new 2 lakh tonne per annum tinning line in October this year, is set to more than double its capacity from 1.80 lakh tonne to 3.80 lakh tonne.
Tata Steel will supply TCIL’s new tinning line 2.20 lakh tonne per annum of full hard cold rolled coils through the six high-reversing cold rolling mills.
The agreement, signed on Friday by Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman and CMI FPE chairman Jean-Marc Kohlgruber, comprised two contracts including an agreement for design, engineering, manufacturing and supply of equipment and another for receiving, handling at site, preservation, erection, testing, start-up, commissioning and demonstration of performance test.
CMI FPE is scheduled to finish the project in 20 months’ time.
Though India is one of the largest producers and consumers of food products, the percentage of produce currently processed and packed is only 2%, as compared with 24-50% in developed countries.
TCIL, the largest producer of tinplate in the country, exports around 30% of its output to southeast and West Asia.
The retailing boom in India along with encouraging government policies and incentives is expected to lead to robust growth of the food processing industry, according to the company.
TCIL believes that tinplate will continue to enjoy functional superiority over other alternatives in packaging of edibles because of its better shelf appeal, product preservation, barrier properties and bio-degradability.