Tata Steel, one of India’s largest steel companies, has bought about 75,000 tonnes of coal from Russia in the last 15 days of May. The Economic Times has given this information through sources quoting two businessmen and a government official. The company has made this purchase after a few months ago it had announced to break trade ties with Russia due to the attack on Ukraine.
Significantly, in the month of April, Tata Steel had said that it has made arrangements for alternative supplies to reduce dependence on raw materials coming from Russia at all its plants which are present in India, UK and Netherlands. Along with this, it was said that the company has decided to end all trade relations with Russia.
According to the report, the imported coal was dispatched from Vanino Port in Russia, of which about 42,000 tonnes were offloaded at Paradip Port and 32,500 tonnes at Haldia. A Tata Steel spokesperson said these orders were placed in Russia before the announcement. However, he did not respond to any subsequent questions.
According to trade data accessed by news agency Reuters, several Indian steel companies have imported coal from Russia in large quantities in the last month. Tata Steel was the only company among the Indian steel companies, which had announced to break business ties with Russia.
There has been a huge increase of up to 30 per cent in coal imports from Russia by Indian steel companies in the recent past. The biggest reason behind this is the huge discounts given by Russian coal producers to Indian companies.
Tata Steel is the largest profit making company of the Tata Group. Its consolidated net profit once stood at Rs 41,749 crore in FY22, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which had a consolidated net profit of Rs 38,449 crore.