Nippon Steel Starts Automotive Steel Pipe Production in India

Nippon Steel announced on Wednesday the firm started commercial operation of steel tube business for automobile in India. Nippon Steel Pipe India (NPI), a joint company between Nippon Steel and Siam Nippon Steel Pipe (SNP) started the order acceptance and the sales in January. The JV will establish integrated production system from bending, drawing, heat treating to processing in early 2013, a year ahead of the initial schedule to follow strong demand growth. The production capacity will increase to 2,000 tonnes per month from present 800 tonnes.

NPI’s plant construction completed in December 2011. NPI now cuts and processes steel tubes made by SNP. NPI started order acceptance from Japanese auto component makers in January after acquisition of quality certifications.

NPI’s capital fund is 740 million rupees, 57.4% invested by SNP, 40.5% by Nippon Steel and 2.1% by Toshida Kogyo, Japanese steel tube processor. NPI has a cutting machine and a heating furnace while plans to install one steel tube manufacturing machine and one cold drawing machine within 2012. The integrated production system will start in January 2013. NPI can produce steel tube for the size with 20-76 millimeters diameter, 1-6 millimeters thick, while purchases steel sheet from India and Japan.

Nippon Steel judged NPI should start the integrated production a year earlier than the initial plan when Indian automobile and motorcycle outputs are expected to reach 24 million units in 2015 from 16.54 million units in 2010.