December 02, 2008

Indian steel majors pushing own retail outlets

ET reported that Indian steel majors such as TATA Steel, Essar Steel and JSW Steel are aggressively looking at expanding on the retail front to eliminate middlemen and help users get quality steel at fairer and transparent prices.

As per the report, TATA Steel has opened 6 Steel Junction stores in West Bengal. The company will open 20 additional stores in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal by the end of the year and have a pan India presence by 2010. Various steel products ranging from furniture to utensils, lifestyle products, safes, almirahs and hardware items are sold at steel junction outlets.

Similarly, Essar retails flat steel products through a chain of 80 steel hypermarts spread across major steel consuming regions such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The company plans to add new product categories such as long steel, structural steel and tubular steel to existing range of flat products at its stores.

JSW Steel is also opening its stores in many states.