With some planned service-cum-product solutions for farmers and new products for institutional market, TSGW is ready to take the Indian market an inch closer to global quality.

Amongst the largest steel wire manufacturers globally, Tata Steel Global Wires (TSGW) Business is ranked prominently in the industry. TSGW Business comprises of four companies, viz. Tata Steel Wire Division, India; the Siam Industrial Wire Co. Ltd, Thailand; TSN Wires Ltd. , Thailand; and Indian Steel & Wire Products, India.

With established dominance in India and Thailand, the Group manufactures in multiple facilities and primarily serves the construction, automotive, power, and retail (galvanized wires for fencing and farming use) market segments.

As a leading producer of PC strands, it has supplied its products to many famed projects of bridges, high rise buildings, LNG tanks, nuclear reactors, metro rails and many other critical applications. TSGW has helped erect many notable structures across the world; a few worth mentioning are the Bandra Worli Sea Link (India), Delhi Metro Rail (India) and Shenzheng Bay Great Bridge (China).

Tata Group’s products are synonymous with trust in India for being one of the early partners in the country’s growth story. The Group and its products have grown with India, and vice versa. Tata Steel – Wire Divison is developing some products and services for the Indian framers, as usual one of the important target segment for the Tata Group, whose growth is indispensable for the country. WCI arranged for a quick chat with Mr. Rajiv Kumar Soni, Executive In-charge, Global Wires – India to know more about the recent and upcoming developments at TSGW.

Wire & Cable India: We hear that TSGW is considering a five-year plan aimed at developing some new products and solutions, for both retail and institutional segment. Is that true?

Rajiv Kumar Soni: Yes, it’s true! Tata Steel – Wire Division has developed a five year plan. We would like to go more and more into wire products in the Retail segment. We would also like to offer services and solutions, which hitherto have been unknown to the Indian market. In order to prepare for that, I am here at Wire 2016 to understand what new innovations and methods have been developed in the wire industry and to take those back to India to start developing and marketing these products which are very much required. We also have some new manufacturing facilities planned for products to serve the automotive and construction sectors.

WCI: Could you be a little more specific as to what you intend to do on retail and institutional segments?

RKS: In the retail segment, we are mainly contemplating on coming up with some novel and complete solution package for our farmers. At the moment, when you sell a piece of wire to a farmer in India, you will find that it is very difficult for him to aggregate the fencing system on his farm by getting masons, fitters, carpenters, etc. He is not very well-equipped for this; and hence chain-links, barbed wires, or other such fences, which are being produced in India, do not last long enough and serve their intended purpose. For instance, how the fences are to be installed is not known adequately in our country.

We would like to offer these services in the Indian market so that farmers do not lose the money they invest and are able to protect their farmlands from animal intrusions. So, this is the big one we would like to take up in the retail segment in India.

In the construction sector, we are already there in the LRPC, PCSR, single LR wire etc. We are now coming up with a new line for PE coated stay cable wire, which is used in bridges, for example, in the Bandra–Worli Sea Link. This product is not made in India at the moment; we will be the first one to do so. We hope to start the facility by the end of this year and bring the product in the market.

WCI: Is there any planned amount to be spent for the five year plan you just spoke about?

RKS: There are some capital investment plans that have been earmarked, but I would not like to divulge the details of the same here. But, we are going in for a new LRPC line, a new PE coated line as mentioned before and we will expand further from there – that is how we have made our five-year plan, which we would take forward one by one.