The Managing Director of Tata Steel, Mr. H M Nerurkar, has revealed that the demand for domestic steel may rise around 9% in this financial year and the expected GDP development will be around 7%.

He notified that the rates were expected to stay stable; however, the cost can vary by Rs 1,000 per tonne for a short period. Also, the country will linger, as a net importer of steel in spite of the growth in other markets.

He exposed that around Rs 8,000 crore investments will be made for the Jamshedpur plant, as it has been increasing its capacity by 3 million tones, which will be 10 millions tones ones the expansion completes in 2010. He also, revealed that the progress of the Orissa projects was satisfactory; however, the Chhattisgarh project did not move ahead. The Orissa Government will be providing iron ore for the project (phase I) planned to be out by March 2014.

Also, the construction work of Gopalpur industrial park project of Tata Steels will begin in the first quarter of the financial year 2013, Nerurkar said.

He added, “Our credit rating remains good. The company will stick to 1:1 debt equity ratio. The financing aspect of the proposed projects of the company is to be taken one by one”.