..:: TATA Metaliks ::..Managing Director's Desk

Tata Metaliks aspires to become the largest global manufacturer of pig iron. We feel that our responsibilities and concerns towards our stakeholders must keep pace. Following the Tata tradition of looking beyond shiny glass cubicles to address real issues, we decided to sow an integrated and workable approach to make our concerns show results.

Hence, the Company's principles of Reaching Tomorrow First and Uttam Se Sarvottam are incorporated holistically into our business ethics, not only in economic value creation. For us, Corporate Social Responsibility is the only way a business can sustain itself across time. So our triple bottomline approach, our affiliation to the prestigious UN Global Compact and our adherence to the GRI guidelines in our disclosures testify to our seriousness with which we look at the social and environmental impact created by our business. In addition, we also incorporate the features of the Tata Business Excellence Model in our operations. In Tata Metaliks, good corporate governance is given; we constantly devise ways to better our best.

As a member of the senior management, I am personally aware of our commitment to integrate responsible practices like “ Reduce, Recycle, Restore, Remake & Reuse” into daily business operations. Such practices include recycling of heat for drying coke, recycling of blast furnace gas to generate power, recycling of lime & graphite used in PCM, reduction of energy consumption by VVF drive, conservation of water (through recycling and water harvesting) selling of used pig iron moulds to casting manufacturers who remake them and sell them back to us, etc.

To align theory to practice, the following are our broad concerns:

With operations in two places, Kharagpur and Redi, the Company is concerned about location-specific environmental issues and their proactive mitigation
With customers and their associates having diverse needs due to location-specific business, the Company assesses them proactively, so that it can enrich its value proposition to meet all needs
As the overall environmental impact of our operations is of prime importance in the long-term, the Company monitors it in the nearby key-communities to accomplish long-term community sustainability vis-à-vis the Company’s growth

Based on these broad concerns, our main activities in the reporting year were:

Operational Efficiency: As in the earlier years, we continued to stress upon operations in line with the guidelines laid by ISO 14001:1996, OHSAS 18000 and the SHE pillar of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). We achieved the TPM Consistency Award from JIPM, Japan. Efforts in rainwater harvesting, water conservation and carbon emission control further demonstrated our concern for society. Our strict compliance to environmental norms encouraged bodies like the WBPCB to partner us in a joint project to manage pollution in and around all Howrah-based foundries.
Economic Prudence: Surplus production was witnessed in the pig iron industry in the year under review causing prices to plummet. Despite the depression in the pig iron market, the Company was able to improve on its total revenue figures due to increased sales volumes. To reverse the trend, the Company decided on a prudent strategy of backward and forward integration, product diversification and value addition.
Empowering Plants: To minimize usage of precious natural resources, we did not connect our Kharagpur plant to a power grid, but generated 6.76MW power in-house from the surplus hot blast furnace gas, a co-product of the manufacturing process. In Redi, we installed a 2.5 MW Turbo Generated set and inherited a facility of grid power from the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, aiming to use only the minimum guaranteed amount.Therefore, for the time being, the Company is more or less self-sufficient in power at Redi.
Plant Acquisition: Our new acquisition, the Redi pig iron plant with an estimated production capacity of 320,000 MT p.a., was completed on January 20, 2006. Operations commenced on February 10, 2006, and by the end of the reporting period, the unit had already produced 13,217 tonnes of hot metal. Tata Metaliks Limited adequately complied with all the environmental norms that the erstwhile promoters had fallen short on.
Market Consolidation: With the Redi acquisition, the Company made rapid strides in consolidating its presence in both Eastern and Western India, enabling it to cater to market demands faster and at a lower cost in these regions.In addition, exports to the Middle East and European countries would be cost effective due to proximity of ports.
Community Uplift in Kharagpur: In the year of reporting,we stepped up our community development efforts in the six villages around Kharagpur. In the health segment, we conducted free medical camps for cataract and IOL implantation benefiting 300 villagers and carried out health check-ups, nutritional surveys blood donation camps and HIV/AIDS Awareness Programmes. To build capacities, we increased infrastructure for learning and sports in schools, created employment within the plant and trained selected village youth to become drivers.
Community Uplift in Redi: In Redi, despite our recent entry, we managed to solve the critical problem of water shortage. As far as water supply is concerned, the Company now uses co-generation power from waste gas to drive electric pumps instead of a diesel generated set, as the latter is costly and polluting. The Company also organised medical check-ups of schoolchildren with adequate health measures. We will do our utmost to ensure that the Redi plant becomes profitable, and once this happens, according to the Tata Code of Conduct, a part of the profits will be ploughed back into the community.

In all the Company’s activities, we encouraged our HR to develop transparent policies for employees, and fostered a culture of employee involvement and leadership to facilitate a sense of ownership and belonging among employees.Furthermore, we continued to make our work atmosphere non-hazardous and worker-friendly by reducing coke consumption, deploying renewable energy wherever possible and optimizing the use of recycled wastes.

Finally, let me conclude by saying that at Tata Metaliks, a Corporate Social Responsibility Report is not a mere formality or a brand-building exercise. It is a serious disclosure on the issues involving our stakeholders both in the short-term and long-term, issues incidentally closest to our heart. At Tata Metaliks, we attempt to walk the talk and live by the profound statement of our visionary Founder, JN Tata, “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in the business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.” We welcome our stakeholders to contact us at the following e-mail id:
sustainability@tatametaliks.co.in with their comments and suggestions.