No. 5: Tata Steel

Current BW Magazine Table of Contents

October 24, 2005 BW Magazine Table of Contents

October 24, 2005 Asia BW 50 Table of Contents

Asia's BW50

2005 Rankings

1	PTT
2	PetroChina
3	Oil and Natural Gas
4	S-Oil
5	Tata Steel
6	POSCO
7	Shinhan Financial Group
8	LG Corp.
9	Samsung Electronics
10	MISC (Malaysia IntÕl. Shipping)
11	Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg.
12	Hon Hai Precision Industry
13	AU Optronics
14	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre
15	Mitsui OSK Lines
16	Reliance Industries
17	CNOOC
18	Tata Motors
19	Hyundai Mobis
20	Komatsu
21	LG Electronics
22	China Petroleum & Chemical
23	Philippine Long Distance Telephone
24	PT BUMI Resources
25	Shell Refining (Federation of Malaya)
26	Sumitomo Metal Industries
27	PT Astra International
28	Thai Petrochemical Industry
29	Kobe Steel
30	Aluminum Corporation of China
31	High Tech Computer
32	Toyota Tsusho
33	Nippon Mining Holdings
34	Formosa Plastics
35	Jilin Chemical Industrial
36	Larsen & Toubro
37	China Steel
38	Esprit Holdings
39	Infosys Technologies
40	LG.Philips LCD
41	China Mobile (Hong Kong)
42	Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical
43	ICICI Bank
44	Siam Cement Group
45	Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical
46	Matsui Securities
47	Yamada-Denki
48	Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha
49	Orix
50	Nippon Steel

Data: Standard & Poor's Compustat

OCTOBER 24, 2005

STORY TOOLS

KPIX

Deep in the heart of Jharkhand, a mineral-rich yet poor, tribal new state in eastern India, lies a jewel: the township of Jamshedpur. A big portion of its 650,000 population is employed by Tata Steel, and it is one of the cleanest and most orderly towns in India. Citizens can even drink the tap water. Tata Steel Chief Executive B. Muthuraman points with pride to the progress of Jamshedpur and its surrounding regions, and credits the company's concern with community development. ``The purpose of an industrial organization is to improve society,'' he says. ``Judge us on that basis.''

Colleagues in the steel business judge Tata Steel on another basis -- as one of the best-run steel companies in Asia, with profits of $820 million last year. Of course, high steel prices have helped, but Tata Steel has a lot more going for it. It's among the lowest-cost producers in the world, thanks to the fact that Tata gets its iron ore from mines it owns in Jharkhand and efficiently turns it into steel using cutting-edge technology.

For now, the company is primarily a domestic steelmaker, but Muthuraman has global designs. Last year, Tata acquired Singapore's NatSteel, which has operations in China, and it's planning to fire up a steel plant in Bangladesh. ``By 2015, we want to be among the top five steel companies in the world,'' says Muthuraman -- while adhering to the exacting corporate code of conduct that Tata Steel considers its most important asset.

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