Tata Steel CEO: ‘Cost of business’ just as important as ease of business

Jamshedpur: The CEO and managing director of Tata Steel, T V Narendran has suggested to the government to focus on "cost of business" to make industry, particularly manufacturing, more competitive.

"We have been controlling the cost of business inside the work but outside the plant, it is not in our hands but the Central and state governments," Narendran told reporters Wednesday.

Referring to the prevailing scenario in the steel sector, he said 2019 was a difficult year and "Tata Steel is not an exception as we have our own set of challenges to deal with."

However, Narendran said, "We have seen some signs of improvement in the last few months of 2019, which is reflected in the fact that demand for steel improved a bit and steel prices are going up again."

Steel prices have shot up to Rs 10,000 per tonne during the last six to eight months.

He expressed confidence that the company would improve its performance in the last quarter (January-March) of the current fiscal as 'demand of steel is okay'. The January to June months would be favourable for the steel sector in view of activities in the construction and infrastructure sectors, he said.

Commenting on the prevailing economic slowdown, Narendran said the April-October period had been the worst period for the steel sector, but things have started looking up since November.

"We are expecting to perform well in the last quarter of the current fiscal," he said, adding that the government has also taken various decisions such as the cut in corporate taxes and the recent announcement of more investment in the infrastructure sector.