The European Union will not be a dumping ground for Indian steel, Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director at Tata Steel, told S&P Global Platts on the sidelines of the Worldsteel conference in Brussels Tuesday.
He said "fair competition" is necessary and there is a "certain amount of steel on seaborne trade and it goes where the consumption is.
"If it's done in compliance to the regulatory framework in that geography, that's how trade happens," he said.
Asked about blast furnace number five at Port Talbot and whether it would be relined, Chatterjee said that was an "operational decision" that would be taken by "operational management."
Some sources close to the company have speculated that blast furnaces are technology of the past and that the furnace would not be relined.
"Currently two furnaces are operating at Port Talbot. We are focusing on our transformation program to make the business more self-sustainable, that's the real objective we have," he said.
"Given the challenges of the industry in recent years, especially in Europe, we have worked together to affect a more sustainable business with the unions, works council and workers," he added, asked about hostility from continental unions to the ThyssenKrupp Tata Steel joint venture.
The market in Europe is on a more sustainable footing than it has been in recent years, suggesting consumption downstream has ticked up somewhat, he said.
"What we need fundamentally is the underlying macro economy of the world and Europe to be stronger and we need to see more investment in infrastructure," he said.
Going forward, he said the purchasing managers index would be a good leading indicator of where the economy is headed and of the direction of the commodity cycle.
